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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24559135">Beneath the Gilded Halls</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enabler_trash/pseuds/Enabler_trash'>Enabler_trash</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Corruption, Enabler, F/F, Fluff, Incest, Intersex, Multi, Polyamory, Romance, Smut, Trans Ruby Rose (RWBY), Transformation, smutty tags to be added when we actually have some smut, yes this is going to have an eight person polycule</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:28:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>26,352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24559135</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enabler_trash/pseuds/Enabler_trash</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where Salem's plans didn't create the opportunity for Ruby Rose to get into Beacon Academy two years early, her team is very different from the one we know. But when during initiation she inadvertently awakens something primal, neither good nor evil, which had been sleeping beneath Beacon, she is faced with a choice. Does she keep the innocence she had known all her life, or will she sacrifice it in order to gain the boons of this ancient power?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blake Belladonna/Weiss Schnee/Neopolitan/Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose/Ilia Amitola/Amber (RWBY)/Penny Polendina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Initiation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This fic exists because I wanted to write extemely kinky self-indulgent smut but am unable to do so without lengthy and detailed plot. There will eventually be debauchery, but I intend to make damn well sure that it's justified by the plot and characters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h6>Ruby</h6><p>Today was set to be the single greatest day of Ruby Rose’s life. It was the day that she was to be initiated into Beacon Academy. For the last two years her sister, Yang, had taunted her, tormented her as only an older sister can. With grandiose tales of adventure and mischief underwent by Yang and the rest of her team, team BYWN (brown). </p><p>Now, it was finally Ruby’s turn to become part of a team, to finally begin the training to become a huntress that felt like it should have happened at least two years ago, if not sooner. To begin the real learning about how to hunt the creatures of grimm. </p><p>From here on there would be far fewer safety measures, less oversight, she was an adult now and was certain that she was fully ready to be treated like an adult by the school she had dreamed of getting into her entire life. It would be dangerous, deadly, and there would be times at which her life depended on the people she ended up in a team with.</p><p>It almost felt inappropriate to be as excited as she was, every year there were people who died at these academies, it was inevitable. The grimm did not go easy on students, they hated all life in equal measure. Or at least, Ruby had to assume that they hated, or else they would have no conceivable motivation for the endless war they waged with the civilizations of the world.</p><p>Nonetheless, those who died did so willingly. It was simply a part of life when you became a hunter. For anyone truly dedicated to the profession, rather than just the obtaining of wealth or influence or respect, it is nothing less than a promise to place the lives of others before your own, a commitment to endless self-sacrifice. Hunters never died of old age, they either retired because of the inevitable health troubles that came with a life spent fighting for your life and the lives of others, got promoted to a position of responsibility such that they no longer fought directly under ordinary circumstances, or died that others could live in the field.</p><p>These thoughts seemed to weigh heavily among the other students as Ruby boarded the airship that would take her to Beacon academy itself from the city of Vale. Personally, she didn’t really mind dying in itself, the part that really bothered her was that if she died she wouldn’t be able to save anyone else ever again. That was why she was prepared to do anything it took to become the best huntress possible. No matter what.</p><p>Once Ruby was aboard she tried to wander around a little bit, excitedly grabbing at whatever cool looking weapons she could find, but unfortunately none of their owners were particularly happy to let her study their babies. She couldn’t blame them, she had to admit that she wouldn’t let strangers take apart her Crescent Rose unless they were really nice. But still, sending her to the back of the airship in disgrace was just mean. She didn’t know anyone here and it was the worst.</p><p>Back there Ruby saw three other people. There was a cheery looking girl in an off-white blouse with puffy shoulders and a green dress, who’s big bright orange hair that actually had a real ahoge on top. She had green eyes and wore a small backpack as she waved excitedly at anyone that got close to her. A well tanned and freckled girl with light gray eyes and long brown hair tied back in a ponytail who was wearing a short black jacket with the sleeves rolled up and brown pants stood in the corner glaring at anyone who approached her. And lastly a girl wearing an off-white blouse, brown vest, dark brown pants, and thigh high boots with brown eyes, a dark complexion, and shoulder length straight brown hair stood in her own corner, simply observing everyone else on the ship. She also had two randomly placed golden pauldrons on her right shoulder and left arm. Ruby noticed that all of them were incredibly pretty.</p><p>The girl in the green dress was the first person Ruby had seen on the airship that seemed like they might actually be nice, so she walked up to her in a final act of loneliness. Fortunately, she was saving from having to awkwardly mess up introducing herself the way she tended to when she initiated conversation.</p><p>“Salutations! I’m Penny Polendina, what’s your name?” Penny took interest in Ruby as soon as she was within three feet of her, rushing over in excitement and violently shaking her hand in greeting as she smiled. She had a really strong grip.</p><p>“I’m Ruby, are you alone too?” If by some miracle Ruby had managed to get into Beacon two years ago she would have been able to hang out with Yang while they traveled like this, but as it was she really didn’t have any friends, even after four years of high school at Signal. </p><p>Talking to people was just too hard, and everyone there had seemed so juvenile. She didn’t think that they were below her for it, after all they were all just teenagers, but she just didn’t understand any of their priorities or troubles or their often mean behavior towards her when all that she cared about was becoming a huntress. In the end, she couldn’t connect with anyone or be bothered to put forth the work that a real relationship required. So there was nobody to take this trip with her.</p><p>“Yes, I’m from Atlas, so I’m afraid that I don’t happen to know anyone on board either, though I suppose that I wouldn’t have anyone to travel with even if I were back home.” Penny glanced out the window of the ship for a brief moment, a look of longing flashing across her face before it disappeared.</p><p>“I know how you feel, my only friend is Crescent Rose, my sniper scythe. Soooooo, why don’t we be friends?” Ruby did her best to avoid posing the question in an awkward way, but she really had no idea if it had worked.</p><p>“That’s an amazing idea friend Ruby!” Penny brightened up like a lamp as she took one of Ruby’s hands in two of her own and started jumping up and down excitedly. It was the kind of display that reminded Ruby of what she’d been like before she’d had to adapt to social norms. Then, just as suddenly as she had started, Penny stopped jumping for joy. “Now what?”</p><p>“I’m not sure, I never thought that I’d get this far. Think Ruby, what would Yang do?” Ruby realized that Yang would probably hit on Penny, so instead she thought about what their dad would do. He would probably tell a really bad knock-knock joke that included a pun about how Penny’s hair was orange. “What Yang would do is a bad idea. I guess I could introduce you to Crescent Rose.”</p><p>With a flourish Ruby pulled Crescent Rose from its place at her hip and unfolded it into scythe form, drawing concerned looks from the two onlookers present. She had the safety on and had already checked her blood circle though, so they were fine. If something happened everyone here would have an aura anyway.</p><p>“She’s my baby, I built her myself.” Ruby affectionately stroked the head of the scythe as she presented it to Penny for her study.</p><p>“Ohhhh, that’s amazing, I know a lot about engineering as well, but my weapon was built for me by my father. He’s a genius.” Penny graciously accepted the scythe and studied it, though she didn’t have long before Ruby could no longer contain herself over what she had said.</p><p>“Can I see it!” Ruby’s silver eyes widened excitedly as her excitement verbally burst out of her.</p><p>“I’m sorry friend Ruby, the way that it works is a secret, so I couldn’t let you study it, but when we get off of the ship I’ll show it to you, the ceiling in here is too low.” Seeming to notice Ruby’s immediate change in mood, Penny changed to topic. “Crescent Rose really is beautiful. This design and metalwork is brilliant. What if you made it so that her head could rotate?”</p><p>The two instant friends spent most of the rest of the trip to Beacon grounds discussing Crescent Rose and Ruby’s secret plans to upgrade her further. Plans which, to her delight, grew significantly with the help of Penny’s creativity.</p><p>“Will you two shut up about weapons already?” The brooding freckled girl in the corner had probably been glaring at them the entire time that they’d been talking, though it was only when she blew up that they noticed her presence. “How can you be so happy talking about a fucking weapon of war?”</p><p>Ruby was utterly confused by the statement. “Well, it’s not like Crescent Rose is for fighting people, she’s for fighting grimm. Besides, I made her, and she’s my beautiful baby.”</p><p>“If you think that grimm are the only things you’re going to have to fight as a huntress, you’re the most naive person I’ve ever met. Either that or you don’t actually care about anyone but yourself.” </p><p>“I’m going to become a huntress to protect people, not to fight them.”</p><p>“What do you think people need to be protected from? How many people get killed by the police and the military every day? How many die in dust mining accidents every year? How many people starve to death while someone else uses the fruits of their labor to buy a gold plated toilet? Huntresses don’t exist to protect people, they exist to protect the systems of oppression that kill more people than the grimm do.”</p><p>Ruby’s tongue was tied, she didn’t know anything about what this person was talking about, and she couldn’t really argue with the things she’d said, but the aggressive and hateful way that she said it didn’t sound right to her. </p><p>Thankfully, the other girl who had been watching events unfold stepped forward. “If that’s what you think then why are you here?” Her tone wasn’t confrontational, she just seemed gently curious.</p><p>“I’m here so that I can learn, and then I’m going to go teach what I’ve learned to as many people like me as possible, people who don’t have the privilege to be able to attend a prim and proper academy.” </p><p>“That’s a really impressive reason. I’m just here because I’m not sure what else I’d be good for that can actually help people. I’m Amber. What’s your name?” Amber extended her hand amicably.</p><p>“Ilia.” Slightly less than grudgingly, Ilia shook the proffered hand. “I suppose I could give you some advice sometime, about how you could actually help people once you graduate, if you’d like.” By the time she finished the last phrase Ilia had gone from confrontational to meek, twirling a strand of hair around her finger and avoiding Amber’s gaze.</p><p>“I’d be delighted, as long as you stop harassing people about their hobbies.” </p><p>“Fine. I’m not going to apologize though.” Ilia turned to Ruby and Penny, who were both still sitting on the floor with Crescent Rose out. “I grew up differently than you two probably did, to me weapons are more often used to fight people than grimm. I’ll try to keep in mind that some people don’t think of them that way.” And with that she walked away, fading into the crowd.</p><p>“Was that not an apology?” Penny stared at the place Ilia had disappeared to. </p><p>“Kinda? She did seem like she was sorry about misunderstanding why we like weapons, even if she didn’t say it.” Ruby shrugged, and at the same moment the airship jerked very slightly as it moored. They had reached the campus. A fact that reminded her Penny was about to show off her weapon.</p><p>Rather than waste time standing up, Ruby decided to just use her semblance to fly forward and snatch up her baby as a flurry of rose petals, then materialize already standing and running outside as she called for Penny to follow.</p><p>Penny was able to follow surprisingly quickly, popping out from the entrance to the airship only a few seconds after Ruby. “Was that your semblance? It was incredible! I’ve never seen a speed semblance like that.” </p><p>“It’s nothing special.” Ruby shrugged. That was all her semblance was, speed. Sure it looked really cool, and being able to materialize rose petals out of thin air would probably be really useful whenever she got a girlfriend, but in combat it was still just speed. “But what about your weapon? I bet that’s special all right.”</p><p>“It really is.” Penny nodded and looked around her, checking that nobody was nearby. Then she raised her arms and from behind her back eight swords extended and hovered in the air, forming a semicircle behind her without ever being touched. </p><p>“Whoa. Whoa! That’s amazing, your father really is a genius!” Ruby stared with her mouth agape at the suspended swords before her, suddenly certain that spending the next four years without being allowed to know how they work would be absolute torture. “Penny, please tell me there’s some way I could get permission to see the schematics for those because otherwise I might die of angst.”</p><p>“They can also shoot green lasers.” Penny supplied in a very unhelpful fashion. “Aaaand, if we end up being on the same team I might be able to get you permission. Because then you’d get to know the secret about me that’s the reason these work. I think that I would like that very much friend Ruby.” Penny smiled hopefully and Ruby practically died from how pretty she was and incredibly technologically advanced her weapons were.</p><p>“Yes! I’ll do everything I can to be on the same team as you during initiation. Pinky swear.” Ruby put her best pinky forward and Penny matched it, though she looked confused.</p><p>“What is a pinky swear?”</p><p>“It’s an extra special kind of promise, we hook our pinkies together to swear that we’re going to do our best to get partnered together.” Ruby finished the swear, hooking her pinky through Penny’s.</p><p>“Wonderful!” Penny shook their interlocked pinkies just as vigorously as she had shaken Ruby’s hand earlier. </p><p>At that point nearly every prospective student had been herded out of the docks, meaning that Glynda Goodwhich’s attention was fully focused on the two of them, as they weren’t even moving. “Move along you two, there will be consequences if you miss part of Headmaster Ozpin’s opening speech.” Her sharp tone was more than enough to motivate both girls to hurry.</p><p>They caught up with the rest of the crowd soon enough, looking around excitedly as they tried to stick together and squeeze through the entrance into the great hall at the same time. Once they had made it in without being separated they saw a large stage had been erected and began to make their way towards it, both excited to see the legendary headmaster for themselves.</p><p>“Did you know that they say Ozpin was actually the rowdiest student in his entire class, and that he’ll let students he likes get away with almost anything?” Ruby didn’t really plan on causing trouble, but when Yang is your sister trouble tends to find you, so she hoped that she could give him a good impression. </p><p>“I haven’t heard anything about him except his accomplishments as an excellent educator. I don’t see how a teacher could be rowdy and still perform their work well.” Penny seemed intrigued.</p><p>Just then there was a sharp sound that echoed through the large hall as someone tapped on an active microphone. Then, Ozpin himself stepped out from behind the stage curtains, silencing the buzz of chatter that ordinarily came with dozens of teenagers in an enclosed space.</p><p>“Welcome, future students. Time is short, so this speech will have to be as well. I’m sure that many of you have come here to learn how to fight. That is a crucial skill to have in our line of work, but here at Beacon you will not find fighting skill alone to be enough. You will all be expected to grow and adapt, and learn more about the wondrous world around you. My intention for this school is to show each and every one of you what it means to be a true hunter, and to provide you with the tools to learn. But even knowledge can only take you so far. It is up to each of you to take the first step.” </p><p>Ozpin made as if to leave, but then turned around with an afterthought. “Oh, and now if you will all please make your way to Beacon Cliff for orientation.” Then he disappeared behind the curtain once more.</p><p>“Well, that was a bit strange.” Ruby wondered what exactly he meant about taking the first step. Still, becoming a true huntress was what she was here to do, so he did seem like a good headmaster to have.</p><p>“According to all accounts Ozpin is a rather strange man, but wise.” Penny nodded thoughtfully.</p><p>“He would sure have to be wise to be a headmaster of one of the four Huntsman Academies. And I guess I kinda like that he’s weird, weird people are usually nice.”</p><p>Something about what Ruby had said seemed to please Penny; rather than keep up their conversation she rushed off excitedly for Beacon Cliff, and Ruby followed.</p><p>Distracted as they were by each other, Ruby and Penny were among the last to arrive at the Beacon Cliff. There Ozpin had another miniature speech to give as they all lined up on suspicious grey tiles placed near the edge of the cliff. </p><p>“This is your orientation, it will determine both your partners and your teams for the next four years, it is of course incredibly important that you are partnered with someone you are capable of working together with. Your mission is to find a partner and head north, to an ancient ruin you will find on the map of the Emerald Forest that was just sent to all of your scrolls, there you will retrieve a chess piece and return it here, then we will grade you. As you all know, there will be plenty of grimm, and we will not be close enough to save you should you endanger yourselves, so do be careful. Student deaths create so much paperwork.” There was a tense pause. ”That was a joke. Ah well. Your partners will be the first person you make eye contact with after landing. Good luck.”</p><p>The moment Ozpin finished his speech Ruby heard someone at the end of the row of tiles farthest from him go flying into the air towards the forest at high velocity. It looked like a lot of fun, she couldn’t tell why the person was screaming. </p><p>More people followed shortly after, and Ruby’s anticipation grew as it approached her turn. “Penny, if you shoot that laser into the air would I be able to see it from a distance?”</p><p>“Yes, I will do that as soon as I’ve landed, then you can hurry to me.” Penny gave Ruby an excited wave as her turn to be launched finally arrived.</p><p>The initial lurch of being fired off towards the woods by a platform outside of Ruby’s control was something of a shock. She was used to acting while moving at high speeds, but that was while using her semblance, and as a result she never felt the force of the acceleration itself. Still, she righted herself quickly and even had a moment to enjoy the feeling of the wind in her face as she free fell for a few seconds before she had to pull out Crescent Rose in scythe form. </p><p>As Ruby approached the dense canopy of ancient trees she quickly scanned the ones where she would approach the ground for a sufficiently thick and angled branch. She could briefly use her semblance to cancel her momentum and land on the ground, but it would be better if she took advantage of this current momentum to propel herself to Penny while staying above the canopy. </p><p>There it was, a thick, gnarled branch jutted out directly above her flight path, all she needed to do was hook onto it with Crescent Rose and she could launch herself to the top of the canopy and run along the treetops, enabling her to gravel with fewer obstacles and avoid the grimm no doubt awaiting her on the ground. Not yet though, she needed to avoid partially attaching to another limb, else it would just be cut through and she’d lose her momentum in the process.</p><p>Wait for it, wait for it, now! Ruby raised her scythe over her head and held on for dear life as it was nearly yanked out of her hands as she bore the entire force of her fall with her arms. It was more painful than she had expected, even with her aura protecting her hands from friction burn. Barely, for Penny’s sake she held on, and laughed triumphantly as she swung back up and released the branch at the perfect point on her upward arc. Take that Yang, she knew that studying the physics of trebuchets would turn out to be useful. Thank dust for the superior siege engine.</p><p>At the peak of her return arc Ruby grabbed onto the trunk of a gnarled old sycamore and took up a perch, frantically scanning the horizon for a green laser shooting into the sky. It would be hard to see among the trees, so she focused on the sky instead. After a few agonisingly long breaths she found it, in the distance to her left there was a neon green beacon that shined in the sky and reminded her of the color of Penny’s eyes.</p><p>Immediately, she applied a short burst of her semblance, not enough to transform, but enough that she was running at her fastest sustainable speed instantly. It should only take about thirty seconds to reach Penny, and it seemed unlikely that anyone else would immediately think to search the skies above them for a sign of a potential partner, or have a specific reason to seek out a random green beam of light. Meaning that they were probably going to be partnered together. Hells yeah.</p><p>With one final burst of semblance assisted speed Ruby dashed down from the treetops into the clearing that the beam of light had originated from. “Penny!”</p><p>A splash of orange below Ruby suddenly resolved itself into Penny’s beautiful face as she turned towards the sound of her voice. “Salutations!” Penny jumped impossibly high into the air and met Ruby in a midair hug that felt like getting hit by a truck, or a rolling boarbatusk.</p><p>“Ooof.” The air in Ruby’s lungs was violently pushed out and she was pretty sure that her aura had just gone down by like ten percent. That should not feel like that, it was as if Penny had an incredible amount of mass, after all she had only been moving as quickly as Ruby.</p><p>“Oh no, I’m so sorry Ruby. I forgot about what my high density would mean about a midair hug. You aren’t hurt are you?” Penny carefully placed Ruby on the ground and put a hand on her ribs to make sure they were intact.</p><p>“I’m alright, just got winded and lost some aura. But care to tell me why you weigh a bunch, is it your semblance?”</p><p>Penny glanced around the clearing conspiratorial before leaning forward and whispering in Ruby’s ear. “I’m the world’s first artificial life form, capable of using an aura, an android, essentially. My body is made of metal, so I’m rather dense.”</p><p>For her part, Ruby had already been flustered when Penny had leaned down near her face, her mind going to things other than whispering. Learning that her new partner and probable best friend was an android was enough to push her over the edge, though she managed to warn Penny first, lest she give the wrong impression. “Penny, I’m about to scream. It is because I am extremely excited, not freaked out in a bad way.” Then she screamed. Not with words, but with the raw primal energy that she felt was the only thing that could express just how incredibly excited she was. She was going to spend the next four years as best friends with a really cute android girl.</p><p>After Ruby was done screaming she felt the need to breathe a little, running as fast as she had tired her out a little bit. Still, she only needed about half a minute to be back in perfect condition with aura accentuating her recovery from fatigue. “Alright, let’s head for those ruins. We can talk tactics as we jog.”</p><p>“Actually, I believe that jogging won’t be necessary.” Penny brought forth her swords and dug two of them into trees on either side of her, lifting herself off of the ground. “I can maneuver us very quickly through this forest by carrying you as we launch from tree to tree.”</p><p>“Okay, that’s incredibly badass and you seriously remind me of Doc Oc right now, but it would do so much damage to the forest, I don’t think we should do something like that unless someone’s life is in immediate danger. It’s not like there’s a time limit on this.” </p><p>Hurriedly, Penny pulled her swords out of the trees and returned to the ground. “Oh no, I hadn’t considered that, I’ve never actually fought in a forest before, but I guess I should care about collateral damage almost as much as in a city. I don’t want to hurt the trees.” She sadly patted the deep stab wound she had left behind on an old tree. “I’m sorry tree.” </p><p>“Do you want me to consider our tactics then, if you’re new to forests? I pretty much grew up out in a house out in the middle of a forest, so I’m probably better suited to the environment.” </p><p>“Yes, please. I can keep up with what running pace you set, because I don’t have lungs, or a bloodstream, so I won’t get tired or out of breath.” </p><p>Oh right, because Penny’s an <i>android.</i> At some point Ruby should try to stop gawking about that, lest she end up getting distracted in the middle of a fight, but still, it was incredible. “Okay.” She pulled out her scroll and checked the promised map. Despite growing up in the woods, she actually wasn’t too good at using maps, she had always just known the local terrain so well she didn’t need one. She had no idea what she was doing. “Are you good with maps?”</p><p>“I can determine which direction is north based on the location of the sun or the stars and day of the year with perfect accuracy, so yes.” Penny quickly glanced over Ruby’s scroll and pointed in a direction. “That way.”</p><p>Living compass, Doctor Octopus, android, and pretty girl all in one? Ruby felt like she must be experiencing an incredibly realistic fantasy, but she decided to just go with it. After a moment, Ruby realized that she was gawking again, and opted to start long distance jogging toward their destination instead, with Penny following close behind her. As they did, Ruby started asking about her fighting skills.</p><p>“So how do you use those swords in a fight?”</p><p>“Against numerous enemies with light or no armor I swing them in wide arcs around myself, when targets are large or too tough to just cut down I can shoot them with the laser, though doing so requires the continuous use of swords, or direct each blade to strike them individually, targeting their weak points. Defensively, I often use them as I showed you earlier to avoid attacks, or just block them normally.”</p><p>“Nice, I use the recoil from sniper fire to move around and create momentum in close range combat, it’s pretty easy for me to reap a bunch of small grimm like grain, and I’m also highly maneuverable, which lets me handle large packs of human size grimm by launching myself around the battlefield. Long range I snipe. Against large grimm or elders I tend to focus on getting to the neck or joints that aren’t armored and severing them clean off. What’s your semblance?”</p><p>“I haven’t discovered it yet, I’m actually only three years old, so it could be a while. My brain was fully developed when father made me, and I’ve been learning as much as I can ever since. It’s probably obvious that I still have much that I want to learn about.”</p><p>That was a bit of a surprise, though it happened. Usually it would only take weeks or months for a semblance to manifest after unlocking your aura, but some semblances were just so subtle or situationally specific some people just never figured out what they had, like her uncle Qrow.</p><p>As Ruby was pondering all this new information a flash of black appeared in her peripheral vision and she turned to face it, catching sight of a group of dark, wolf-like creatures with menacing red eyes running alongside and slightly behind them, gradually catching up. “Beowolves, I’ll get the left and you get the right?”</p><p>“I shall do so immediately.” Penny cheerily launched herself into her half of the pack as she finished talking, and Ruby did the same.</p><p>At this point in her life taking out a small pack of beowolves was fairly routine for Ruby, and she waded her way through them with graceful and easy swings of her scythe. She had been hunting beowolves in the woods on a regular basis for more than five years, and she was practically a blur of red as she swept through their ranks, seemingly relaxed, but careful not to let her guard down as she brought her scythe up behind her to block a swipe of claws. Anything could be dangerous in a large enough pack, and she could tell that the pack was slightly larger than expected, so when she found herself needing to reload she quickly flew into the branches of a tree with her semblance and loaded a clip full of lightning dust infused rounds. </p><p>Then, Ruby sat in her perch and took a few moments to take out the beawolves that were quickly climbing her tree with one of the rounds, on impact it sent an arc of lightning shooting out from the hit beowolf that spread to five more, all of them disintegrating a few seconds later. </p><p>Ruby scanned the area as she fired a few more rounds into areas of especially dense concentration, making sure there was no alpha nearby and that Penny was still doing well. Shit, she should have thought to start a constant call on their scrolls in case they had to fight. She probably shouldn’t have essentially established herself as the leader between them, she had almost no idea what she was doing, she was just winging it.</p><p>Scanning the ground around her, she could still see about twenty more beowolves, and no alpha. If this was half the pack there probably was an alpha, meaning that Penny was fighting it or was about to. Just as she started to run back to Penny, cutting down a few more grimm as she ran, she heard a scream coming from her direction. That was when she knew for sure that she fucked up.</p>
<h6>Penny</h6><p>Penny had never fought beowolves before, sure they could be found everywhere on Remnant and that included in Atlas, but for some reason she had never been asked to help fight them, perhaps because their significant speed made them more challenging to capture and the way that they were considered too weak to be worth practicing against. They were felled quickly enough, a single heavy slash with her array was enough to take out a small cluster of the beasts. Though their speed proved to be difficult to handle at first. She was used to being faster than her opponents, and as a result she took a few light blows before learning to predict the leaping attacks of the simple-minded beowolves.</p><p>Penny’s swords circled around her at ground level and made it impossible for attacks to come from there, as a result the beowolves began to climb up trees, pouncing on her from above. If she was an ordinary person it would probably have been enough to overwhelm her, forcing her to warily watch the treeline as she cut a path through the pack on the ground. Fortunately, her ability to quickly and accurately process visual input meant that she was aware of the exact location of each grimm in the trees with a glance, determined either through the subtle bending of branches, or brief flashes of black or red glimpsed through the canopy.</p><p>After that, it was a simple matter for Penny to bring her heavy metal fist upward into the gut or jaw of the beowolves as they pounced at her and turn them to smoke, even as she continued to fight those on the ground with her floating array. For obvious reasons, she was an excellent multitasker.</p><p>As Penny began to notice an appreciable thinning of the beowolves’ numbers, she felt the tide of battle suddenly change, they no longer ran forward and threw themselves at her, instead they began to circle her, like a pack of real wolves. They had started to behave intelligently, which meant that there was an older, stronger, and more intelligent grimm nearby instructing them.</p><p>Sure enough, the moment Penny realized what was going on, a much larger quadrupedal form than the other quickly began to make its way through the pack. As it approached it stood up on its hind legs, towering about ten feet high and covered in even more dangerous spikes of bone than the average beowolf. She knew she couldn’t defeat one of these alone, if she tried to fight it with all of the swords in her array at once, the wolves behind her would be able to easily pounce and overwhelm her.</p><p>“Ruby!” Penny shouted as loud as she could in the general direction that Ruby should be in, they really shouldn’t have separated like this. </p><p>At the same time, the beast that was no doubt a beowolf alpha leaped at her, and in response she jumped, taking to the forest canopy the same way the younger beowolves had. She made her way to a height that the branches would not support the alpha’s weight while sending her swords out independently to impale each of the remaining beowolves that remained. Once she had reached and created a relatively safe vantage point with an arm wrapped around the trunk of a tree, she brought her swords together to fire a full power beam at the alpha as it tried to climb up the tree itself, having greater difficulty due to its weight. </p><p>While the alpha didn’t seem seriously wounded, a few seconds of Penny’s beam was enough to convince it that climbing was futile and hop down to the ground, circling the tree that she was in. Realizing that Ruby could get here any second, Penny changed her focus to making two smaller lasers that she began to turn to the regular beowolves in the pack, they were quickly turned to piles of black mush that evaporated into nothingness. </p><p>It was then that Ruby arrived in a blur of rose petals, taking out another few beowolves as she did. There were only about a dozen left backing up the alpha, but Ruby probably had more on her tail, making it important that they take it down before it was reinforced. </p><p>Like Penny, Ruby’s arrival turned the head of the alpha, and that was when she saw her opportunity. Gracefully, Penny released the tree trunk and made a dive at the alpha, pointing all eight of her swords down at it as she prepared to impale it octuple fold. At the last second it realised what was happening and brought its arm analogs up, causing a few swords to be deflected off of the hard bone spikes on its arms as the rest impaled themselves there, causing it to howl in pain, but not die. </p><p>In that moment of distraction Ruby used the opportunity presented by the alpha’s raised arms to dart forward and cut clean through its torso with the help of a single shot that also took out a few of the remaining beowolves via an arc of lightning as it provided the recoil with which she killed the alpha. </p><p>With the alpha gone, the remaining few dozen beowolves went down quickly in a frenzy of flashing blades and heavy gunshots. With the area clear for the moment, Ruby seemed to need a quick rest, as she immediately collapsed against a tree, her breathing rapid.</p>
<h6>Ruby</h6><p>Even once she had caught her breath, Ruby couldn’t bring herself to look up from the ground between her legs at her newfound partner. She was certain that Penny was going to look at her with the same disappointment and regret that the other people she’d known from Signal had after they saw her mess something simple up for the first time. Tell her that they never should have tried to be partners, and walk away. Or worse, stick around because she felt obligated to. </p><p>“Ruby? You’ve stopped breathing heavily, which should mean that you’ve physically recovered, but you still show signs of an elevated heartbeat, why is that?” Penny crouched down in front of Ruby and tried to look at her face. “Are you well?”</p><p>“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have split us up, I didn’t realise that the pack was big enough to have an alpha until after it was too late. And I should have initiated a mission call with you on my scroll, but I didn’t think of it. I shouldn’t be trying to tell you what to do.” Ruby knew that feeling sorry this way was only likely to attract more grimm to the area, but she couldn’t help it, it was the same thing every time.</p><p>“So you are in emotional distress because of your mistake? Hmmm. I’m afraid that I lack experience helping with that, but I’ll do my best.” Penny’s best appeared to be a big hug that encircled Ruby in her arms and lifted her off of the ground. “I would greatly appreciate it if you didn’t stop leading us, I most likely have even less experience working with others than you, as I had not considered opening a line of contact at all.”</p><p>“You mean you don’t want to leave me behind now?” Ruby dared to meet Penny’s bright, beautiful green eyes.</p><p>“I would never leave you behind, we’re friends, and friends don’t do that, right?” Penny said it completely matter-of-factly, something that eased Ruby’s mind a great deal and prompted her to hug back.</p><p>“Right. Okay, we should get moving again, I’d like to finish initiation before dark and have a nice big dinner.” Ruby reluctantly slid out of Penny’s extraordinarily strong embrace and looked around them. “Which way?”</p><p>Once again they headed off according to Penny’s directions. This time they managed to travel without any significant trouble, only a few individual grimm crossed their path, and they were easily cut down. Eventually they approached a break in the trees, and ran out into a large clearing. In the clearing were a few scattered about stone pillars and a foundation that must have been the ruins. Set on plinths scattered throughout the ruins were the sixteen chess pieces that were their goal.</p><p>“Alright, this is awesome, we’re the first ones here! I wonder if we’re going to get extra good grades for being so quick. We make such a great team Penny!” Ruby held her hand up towards Penny with the palm facing outward as they kept jogging to their target, but rather than give her a high five, Penny just stared at the hand. “It’s called a high five, we clap hands with each other to celebrate doing something well.”</p><p>With a thinkful nod and another one of her brilliant smiles Penny reached up and returned the high five just as they reached the nearest podium, which contained a fairly large white queen, as if from a chess set. “I can store this in my backpack.”</p><p>Ruby nodded. “Yeah that sounds pretty secure, as long as your swords won’t cut it up or something.” She was traveling light for this mission because maneuverability was important for her combat style, and extra weight could tire her out more quickly. She had brought only her weapon, plentiful ammo, and some water.</p><p>Penny stored the relic quickly enough, and they turned back towards the forest to return to the objective. As they did however, the sound of two women screaming began to make its way into the clearing. Seconds later, from the far side of the clearing two distant figures that Ruby recognised as being Ilia and Amber burst out of the tree line at a sprint, followed closely by a giant death stalker that tore after them while breaking down every tree in its path with ease. Strangely, moss and numerous small pockmarks could be seen all over its carapace.</p><p>“Come on, we’ve got to help them!” Ruby drew Crescent Rose as she started to run towards the death stalker. Even if they left with their relic, and Ilia and Amber escapted, the stalker would no doubt remain to terrorize the other initiates, and that was something Ruby wouldn’t allow.</p><p>“Agreed. Salutations Ilia and Amber!” Penny was quick to catch up with Ruby as they charged, she probably could have passed her, but kept even instead.</p><p>As they charged Ruby used the advantage of distance to take a few exploratory sniper shots at the massive death stalker’s unarmored legs, but her shots were blocked harmlessly by its heavily armored claws as its heavy stinger hovered threateningly above it. “We need to get to it from the side or behind, if we split up and try to separate it’s stinger at the base first that should make things a lot easier.” </p><p>“Understood, I shall go left again.” Penny launched herself forward and to the side in tandem with Ruby as they approached the range of the death stalker’s powerful claws, circling around it in opposite directions.</p><p>Rather than turn to face one of them and leave it’s back undefended, the stalker lashed out with both of its claws, moving so quickly that Ruby couldn’t raise her scythe in time to block and ended up flying through the air to impact a tree trunk with a loud exhalation. Better than getting cut in half at least.</p>
<h6>Ilia</h6><p>Ilia was astonished by the poor decision making skills of the girls she had gotten mad at on the airship. Instead of getting the hell out of there with the relic they must have already grabbed, they decided to charge at the massive death stalker currently chasing after her. Whatever, she wasn’t going to get herself killed trying to save a couple of boneheaded humans, so she just kept running as they passed her by, intending to grab a relic and get out of here with Amber. </p><p>Unfortunately, Amber seemed to have other plans. “We are not leaving those two to fight that thing alone.” Her hand grabbed onto Ilia’s shoulder firmly a few seconds after they passed the insane duo, bringing her to a forced stop.</p><p>“Yeah, we definitely are. We have no oversight and that thing will kill us!” Ilia turned to face Amber angrily.</p><p>“If we don’t take it down it could kill a bunch of other initiates as well, in addition to those two! I thought that you wanted to learn about being a huntress to help people! What do you think this is a chance to do? Or are you just a hypocrite who talks big about fighting the system and then runs away as soon as they’re in danger themself?”</p><p>Ilia gritted her teeth. She’d come here to help <i>her</i> people, the faunus, she couldn’t care less about a couple of humans here and there. But of course, to admit that would just serve to reveal that the things she wanted to learn here were less about being a huntress and more about weaknesses, and potential means of attack. “Fine. I guess we owe them anyway, and I don’t want to let someone I owe something to die.”</p><p>At first Ilia had really liked Amber, she seemed kind and curious, and it certainly helped that she was a pretty girl. Now though she was starting to regret staying hidden from the few people she had come across in an ultimately successful attempt to find Amber. Too nice was more trouble than it was worth.</p><p>The two partners turned around just in time to see the stalker smack Ruby upside the head and send her flying into a tree with a nasty thud. For Amber that was enough, she started running back to the monster that they had just gotten away from with her staff in hand, and Ilia followed reluctantly in her wake as she drew her whip, Lightning Lash. </p><p>A ball of fire materialised in Amber’s hand as they ran, it came from her semblance, pyrokinesis. Once they were close enough she threw it at the stalker’s head and in response the claw that had sent Ruby flying a few moments ago came up to block it, even as the other claw and the stinger attacked Penny, who seemed to be barely dodging the stalker’s blows with the aid of eight swords that dug into the environment and seemed to launch her about as if by magic. </p><p>Ilia took advantage of the defensively raised claw, wrapping her whip around it as she dashed forward and retracting it, causing it to pull her up and over the claw as she went for the head. She managed to hit one of the stalker’s ten eyes with a quick flash of her whip before the stinger hit her in midair, knocking her back in Amber’s direction. But it was enough. </p><p>With only one appendage concentrating on her, as well as the distracting pain caused by the loss of an eye Penny was able to throw herself over the only guarding claw and sever two back legs at their intersection with the carapace, drawing forth a horrendous chittering as the stalker cried out in pain.</p><p>Unfortunately, Penny’s new position between a claw and the body left her unable to maneuver in midair, and for revenge the stalker grabbed her between its claws and started squeezing, something that prompted a scream from Ruby, who was finally rejoining the fight.</p><p>“Amber, freeze Ilia’s feet to the ground while she wraps her whip around the free claw, I’ll jump in and sever the one holding Penny!” Ruby shouted at them as she approached and they scrambled to comply, lacking better ideas.</p><p>Ilia spread her legs in a wide stance and held onto her whip with both hands as she mentally prepared herself for the incoming cold, she’d always been unreasonably sensitive to drastic temperatures, no doubt a result of her partially reptilian nature. As ordered Amber froze her feet to the ground with the large crystal of ice dust at the end of her staff, anchoring them with a burst of painful cold. </p><p>The stalker charged them as Ruby got close, and Ilia saw her opportunity to grab the empty claw and took it, her whip wrapping around it securely. In the next instant followed a life or death tug or war as she struggled to avoid losing her grip, every moment that it took for Ruby to reach her destination with the large red scythe she held was filled with the agony and strain in both her hands and feet.</p><p>For a moment Ilia was concerned that the stinger was still going to impale Ruby, but then she saw Penny’s swords were firing some sort of ray at the tail that kept it pushed back, even though it didn’t seem to do any real damage. She breathed a sigh of relief as a burst of rose petals slipped above the restrained claw and resolved itself into a person-shaped blur that sliced both of the stalker’s claws off with the sound of multiple heavy gunshots that added the needed force to break through the unarmored section of thick exoskeleton.</p><p>With the claws gone it wasn’t hard for Amber to freeze the remaining six legs in place with a rapid flurry of blows from her staff. After which Ruby fired a heavy caliber fire dust infused sniper round directly into the stalker’s largest eye socket and blew it up from within, leaving behind a few shards of heavy armor that slowly faded into nothingness along with the rest of the creature.</p>
<h6>Ruby</h6><p>Ruby released a breath she hadn’t realized that she’d been holding as Penny sat up from among the disintegrating remains of the stalker’s claw. “Penny, are you okay!” She jumped on top of Penny to give her a hug, trusting Ilia and Amber to have their back in case other grimm were attracted to the fight.</p><p>“Unfortunately, my aura was broken and I have suffered minor structural damage, though it will not affect my combat performance.” Penny gestured to a spot near where her ribs would have been, where her clothes had a slight hole in them, revealing torn skin that normally covered her metal chassis, which now had a minor dent in it.</p><p>“I’m so relieved, I was so scared when it got you in its clutches.” Ruby buried her face in Penny’s shoulder and tightened their hug, which led to her seeing a white object a few feet in front of her. “Oh, the relic fell out, we should probably grab it right away.” Still, she had no intention of breaking the current hug.</p><p>No intention, until she saw the relic they had claimed together get suddenly snatched up by a strangely large bat. That was enough to make her jump up and shout as she pointed at the bat. “That thing just took our relic!”</p><p>At that Penny turned around as well and stared in confusion mirroring Ruby’s own as she watched a big bat fly off in the direction that the death stalker had come from, towards what looked to be a cave that they could make out not too far away. “How strange, bats do not naturally grow that large, nor should they be active in the day, yet this creature is most certainly shaped like a bat, and isn’t a grimm.”</p><p>“Let us grab our own relic first and we’ll give you a hand. If you’re going into a cave you’re going to need a light source anyway.” Amber held a small ball of fire in her hand to demonstrate her usefulness as she volunteered herself. “Who knows what other nasty things might be in there.”</p><p>“That would be great, thanks!” Ruby nodded and watched as Amber went off with Ilia to grab a relic, though it looked like they had a short argument before Ilia finally shook her head and gave in.</p><p>By the time the pair returned with a black queen in hand Ruby was getting antsy and more than ready to head out. It didn’t help that a few people had also shown up, meaning that if they couldn’t find their relic in the cave they might actually end up getting kicked out of Beacon. No pressure.</p><p>Ruby got the four of them moving quickly. “Penny, how’s your aura now?”</p><p>“Ten percent. I will need to stay in the back and focus on ranged fire in the event of a combat situation.”</p><p>“Agreed.” As they made their way into the cave Amber’s pyrokinesis turned out to be very important indeed, it quickly became the only light source among the twists and turns of the fortunately single shafted cave. Still, it took a good ten minutes of walking ever deeper into the bowels of the earth to find the relic.</p><p>It was in what appeared to be a large natural cavern about the size of the Beacon grand hall, complete with an underground body of water in the distance that shined oddly in the light of Amber’s flame. In the center of the room the relic simply rested on the floor, with no sign of the creature that had taken it nearby. They approached it cautiously, unnerved by the strange circumstances around them, but nothing happened, and there was no nefarious device near it to harm them upon its retrieval.</p><p>So Ruby leaned over and picked it up off the ground, but as she did so she cut her hand slightly against a strangely sharp rock that rose up from the floor. Strangely, it had cut her through her aura. A few drops of her blood dripped onto the floor before the wound healed shut quickly with the help of her aura, causing her to shrug and dismiss it as she held up the relic to show to the others. “Got it.”</p><p>Then she dropped it again as the entire cavern suddenly shook, she could feel it shaking in her entire body, down to her bones. It felt like even her brain was rattling in her skull as she fell over onto the floor, unable to keep her balance.</p><p>
  <i>Kin of my people, you have finally returned to us. Follow the scent of your own lifeblood beneath the light of the full moon so that we might speak once more.</i>
</p><p>A great booming force spoke directly into Ruby’s mind, only worsening the confusion of her muddied awareness as she barely registered the other three people in the cavern rushing towards her in concern. That was the last thing she saw before losing consciousness.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Team RAAP</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m going to try to stick to biweekly updates, even though I’m writing chapters more quickly than that right now. This way I’ll hit a stump and have a backlog to keep posting while I find my motivation</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ruby woke up in a soft bed. She felt comfortable, warm, it was probably the best night's sleep she had ever gotten, even if the events preceding it had been concerning. The events preceding it... she hadn’t been sleeping, she had lost consciousness in that strange underground cavern in the Emerald Forest, the memory of the strange, powerful voice that had spoken to her still remained, as vivid as if it was still happening.</p><p>
  <i>Kin of my people, you have finally returned to us. Follow the scent of your own lifeblood beneath the light of the full moon so that we might speak once more.</i>
</p><p>Slowly, Ruby forced her eyes open, she needed to know what was going on. The first person she saw was Penny, who she absentmindedly realized was holding her hand and had been since she first woke up. When Penny saw her eyes open she called excitedly for someone, though Ruby didn’t have the energy to understand her words.</p><p>Someone else was at Ruby’s bedside in her peripheral vision, so she turned her head, realizing that she was most likely in a campus medical facility, as the walls and ceiling were all a sterile white. On her left side was Amber, who wasn’t holding her hand, but still looked very pleased that she had woken up. Behind Amber, Ilia hung about with a sour expression on her face.</p><p>With motion came a little bit more awareness, and Ruby felt conscious enough to speak. “What happened?” Her mouth wasn’t actually all that dry, which was good because she must not have been unconscious for too long if she wasn’t thirsty or connected to an IV.</p><p>“You lost consciousness for about three hours and we have no idea why. We were very worried about you.” Penny looked at Ruby with a pained expression as she refused to let go of her hand.</p><p>“But what about initiation? How did we do?” As long as she was alive and in one piece that was good enough, the most important thing was that she’d gotten into Beacon.</p><p>“We all missed the ceremony, but congratulations Ruby, you’re the leader of Team RAAP (raspberry).” Amber smiled and briefly shook the hand that wasn’t claimed by Penny.</p><p>“Assuming that you’re still capable of fighting that is.” Ilia commented from her spot in the distance, but Ruby beckoned for her to come closer. She grudgingly complied and stood next to Amber.</p><p>“Nothing short of death or dismemberment is ever going to stop me from fighting.”</p><p>“While that could be considered an admirable position by some Miss Rose, I will not allow you to participate in field training until we understand what caused you to lose consciousness.” Glynda Goodwitch stepped into Ruby’s limited field of view. “That cave is a very special place that you should not have entered, or been affected by in this manner, nor even be capable of entering. Once you feel fit to walk about on your own, you will report to Headmaster Ozpin and tell him everything, until then, as far as anyone outside of this room knows you were knocked unconscious in the fight with the death stalker. Do you understand?” The final question was addressed to the entire room as Glynda affixed each of them with her terrifying glare.</p><p>“Yes ma’am.” Ruby nodded, and her new team nodded with her. Oh wow, her new team. That was crazy, she’d never expected to be assigned as a team leader, she barely ever managed to talk to people that weren’t Yang or her dad for more than ten minutes at a time. But here she was with a new best friend, combat partner, and two other people that she thought were probably cool. Amber seemed really nice, and Ilia was kinda rough around the edges, but she had helped them, sort of apologised, and she was here for pretty much the same reason as her, even if their methods seemed to be different, so they could totally get along.</p><p>Once Glynda had left, Ruby went ahead and tried out her fine motor skills by trying to interlock her fingers with Penny’s. It worked. Yeah, she really just felt like she had woken up from a particularly deep sleep and was fine now.</p><p>“Sooo, unrelated question, does anyone know when the next full moon is?”</p><p>“The next full moon will appear tomorrow night.” Penny jumped in with an answer as expected and Ruby squeezed her hand appreciatively.</p><p>“Oh good, thanks Penny.”</p><p>Amber looked at Ruby like she was crazy. “Don’t tell me that you just inexplicably lost consciousness and now you’re thinking about getting some?”</p><p>“Getting some what?”</p><p>“Some fuck.”</p><p>“What-oh, as in-th-that is not why I asked. But even if that was related to the moon for me, it’s not why i’m asking. And I’m gay anyway.” Ruby’s shoulders tensed as she tried not to be obvious about the way she looked around the room to check everyone’s response.</p><p>“I mean, it’s not like that automatically disqualifies you from needing to be concerned about your period for the purpose of sex.” Amber threateningly raised an eyebrow at her. Ruby put her on her list as the first person on her team to tell that she was also trans.</p><p>Suddenly, Ruby felt self-conscious about how intimately she was still holding Penny’s hand, and let go. “I think I’m fine though. Clearly there was just something weird about that cave, since Glynda said we weren’t supposed to have been in it.” She swung her legs over the bed and stood. “See? I’m fine.” Her stomach rumbled. “And also famished, it’s about dinnertime, right?”</p><p>“I’m gay too.” Out of nowhere Ilia spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention to her. “I’m not really happy to have you as a leader, but I guess most of the other people at this school would have been worse, at least we have a few things in common.” And then she left the room.</p><p>“Is it just me or did she say that she’s glad I’m her team leader in the most roundabout way possible?” Ruby squinted at the door in confusion.</p><p>“I believe that that is exactly what happened.” Amber smiled at the door and turned back to Ruby. “Do you need a hand?”</p><p>“Well no, I’m already standing up perfectly fine.” Ruby took a step forward to the door to the infirmary and checked herself to make sure she felt fine. “Wait, where’s Crescent Rose?” Her sniper scythe was not in its usual position by her hip.</p><p>Amber pointed to a weapon rack on the wall, from which hung Ruby’s baby in her compact form.</p><p>Hurriedly, Ruby snatched Crescent Rose off the rack and gently stroked her shiny red shell. “Oh baby, there there, momma’s back. And as soon as she’s got some food in her you’re getting a good cleaning, yes you are. Can’t go letting all that lightning and fire dust residue just sit in your mechanisms can I? No, I’ll always take good care of you.”</p><p>“Dust I wish that was me.” Penny mumbled under her breath. Ruby was aware that she couldn’t have heard it. It was too quietly said, too far away, and besides, there was no way Penny would say something like that anyway.</p><p>“What did you say Penny?” She must have just imagined being able to distinguish the words, when Penny told her what she actually said it would be fine.</p><p>“Nothing of importance friend Ruby.”</p><p>Amber stared at the two of them for a moment before chuckling. “I look forward to the next four years with you lot. I think they’re going to be a lot of fun.”</p><p> </p><p>“Um, thanks? I’m just gonna get food now. Penny, do you need to eat?” Ruby wasn’t sure whether Penny could eat at all, so it was probably best to give her a way to go to their dorm without seeming suspicious.</p><p>“No, thank you. I will head back to our assigned dorm room and tell Ilia and Amber about why I am not hungry right now when all of you have returned from your meal.” Penny waved at Ruby as she left.</p><p>“Okay, I’ll see you later.” Ruby waved back before heading off to the dining hall.</p>
<h6>Yang</h6><p>“Yang, we have our own, fully stocked, actual kitchen now, why are you even considering eating in the dining hall?” Blake continued to stand in Yang’s way as she tried to get to the Beacon dining hall.</p><p>“Because some things are just more important than good food and privacy, and family is one of those things Blake. When Ruby wakes up she’s going to be hungry, and when she goes to the dining hall I want to be there to congratulate her for kicking ass and becoming her team’s leader.” Yang had to admit that that wasn’t the only reason. The fact that Glynda hadn’t let her into the infirmary to be by Ruby’s side meant that there was something she was trying to hide from the student body. She needed to get to Ruby and make her spill about what happened to make her lose consciousness before Glynda and Ozpin could get to her too much.</p><p>“You have no way of knowing that she’s going to just happen to wake up sometime soon, you need to stop this Yang. We don’t know how long she’s going to be out. Please don’t fixate on some false hope, it’s only going to hurt you more later if things turn out bad.” </p><p>“Blake, you have no idea what you’re talking about. We’re sisters, I know that she’s going to be at that dining hall tonight.”</p><p>“I wish you would stop taking these wild leaps of faith; one of these days you aren’t going to land on your feet.” Blake sighed, but moved out of the doorway, and Neo carefully pulled her in for a hug.</p><p>“I’m coming with you. Something about deliberately eating bad food is very satisfying.” That was Weiss speak for <i>I’ll take care of her.</i> “And, it is about time that I met Ruby, is it not?”</p><p>Weiss hadn’t been around for the past two summers because of her societal obligations, in other words, because her father was using her to fulfill his own ends. As a result, she hadn’t visited Yang and Ruby in Patch. Hopefully the next would be different, as Weiss had been using her father as well, preparing herself to perform a hostile takeover of the Schnee Dust Company and oust the bastard in order to replace him with her mother.</p><p>“I guess, I mean, if you can come with me without being completely overwhelmed by the need to kiss me because of how sexily I eat lasagna.” </p><p>“If you’re going to insist on eating a few meals with Ruby after today, we’re going to just invite her and her team to come eat with us.” Weiss wrinkled her nose at the thought of the school lasagna. They used feta cheese. Feta! In lasagna! It was criminal, even Neo said so, and she would know because her dad had raised her to be a criminal, even if that was behind her now.</p><p>“That’s actually a great idea, maybe Ruby’s team will all end up in a polycule too and it’ll turn into double dates! They are all girls.” Blake smiled at the thought.</p><p>Team BYWN had been a polycule for a little bit more than the past seven months, but Yang hadn’t told Ruby yet because she couldn’t manage to gather all of them in the same place and she insisted that everyone be there when they told her.</p><p>“Ewww that’s gross, my baby sister isn’t allowed to date anyone, at least not where I can see it.” Yang crossed her arms.</p><p><i>She’s eighteen and you’re twenty Yang. She can date anyone she wants, maybe she’ll date me.</i> Neo signed with a gigantic smirk on her face. She was just teasing, and as usual she was very good at it.</p><p>“Oh ha ha. I’m leaving, c’mon Weiss, let’s go.” Yang stormed out of the room before Neo said something that would actually make her angry, Neo had learned not to push too far most of the time, but Ruby was an unexplored subject of teasing.</p><p>“You have to admit that seven girlfriends is better than three.” Weiss said.</p><p>If Weiss could have seen Yang’s face at that moment she would have been very shocked, because her comment was just accurate enough to make Yang’s breath hitch in fear. In truth, the reason she was so overprotective of her sister was because she did in fact think about adding her to the polycule sometimes. Not just as Blake, Weiss, and Neo’s girlfriend, but hers as well.</p><p>Yang knew it was messed up, which is why she spent large quantities of her private time forcing herself to avoid thinking about it. Unfortunately, the result of that private time was often her touching herself and thinking about Ruby, especially during summer when her girlfriends generally weren’t around and Ruby was.</p><p>“Of course for you it would be six girlfriends.” Weiss hadn’t even paused between the sentences. </p><p>Yang really was getting too anxious about the fact that she was going to be spending pretty much all of her time in the same geographical location as Ruby for the next two years. And the fact that Ruby was an incredibly brave and strong young woman now. Dust, those back muscles.</p><p>“Can we change the subject.” Yang snapped, prompting a slight flinch from Weiss.</p><p>“Sorry.” Weiss changed the subject for the remainder of the walk to the cafeteria.</p><p>She hated it. She hated herself for thinking the way she did about Ruby, for responding to those thoughts by snapping at Weiss. She loved Ruby though, and the thought that she was getting close to being able to congratulate her beloved sister helped her brighten up as she approached the cafeteria with Weiss.</p><p>“Let’s see.” Yang put an index finger on her head as she sat down at a table with Weiss and their supposed dinner. “According to my sisterly psychic powers Ruby is going to walk in through that door riiiiight, now.” </p><p>Weiss looked at where Yang was pointing and her jaw dropped. “I will never doubt your psychic abilities again.” </p><p>Because standing exactly where Yang pointed was one bright red bundle of excitement named Ruby Rose.</p><p>“Ruby! Over here!” Yang waved to get Ruby’s attention as she stood up in preparation for her no doubt imminent hug.</p><p>It seemed to work, because Ruby was able to quickly dart towards Yang, before realizing that someone wasn’t following her and turning around to convince them to follow her lead, something that didn’t take very long. Once they stepped into the cafeteria proper she recognized them as being one of the members of team RAAP.</p><p>“Yang!” Ruby ran up to Yang and jumped her, throwing her arms around her neck, even though they had seen each other yesterday before she left Patch. “Missed you.”</p><p>“It’s only been a day you dork.” Yang laughed. “I’m so proud of you, you kicked so much ass in that initiation, and you came up with a really good idea at the last second in the fight against that death stalker.”</p><p>“How do you know about that?”</p><p>“Initiation actually gets recorded and broadcast to all of the other students. It’s the main reason we tend to get here the day before or sooner. Some of the fourth years also keep an eye on things to make sure nobody dies. They really messed up by not knowing there was a death stalker that old in that cave it came out of.”</p><p>“Oh, um, does that mean that everyone saw...” Ruby trailed off nervously.</p><p>“If you mean something to do with the obvious crush you have on the girl with the floating laser swords, nobody saw anything too personal that may have happened, they edit that sort of thing out.” Yang was conflicted about her sister’s obvious crush. On one hand, as Weiss said seven girlfriends were better than three. On the other, that was the most implausible, unlikely thinking that she had ever heard. As it was, it was going to be hard to handle if anyone who wasn’t also dating Yang was dating Ruby, much less the fact that she never would date Ruby herself.</p><p>“What? No, nothing happened! And her name is Penny. And I definitely don’t have a crush on her.”</p><p>The girl who had come over with Ruby rolled her eyes. “You obviously have a crush on her, and she obviously has a crush on you, so ask her out already you useless lesbian.”</p><p>“Where have you been all my life?” Yang’s was floored by this woman’s raw power. If she had had someone like that around when she’d been falling for her teammates life would have been so much easier.</p><p>“Amber, come on, that’s impossible.” Ruby dropped from Yang’s hug and shook her head at her. </p><p>“It appears that Yang’s sister is just as useless as she is. You have my sympathies, teammate to teammate.” Weiss had perched herself on the cafeteria table to join in on the conversation.</p><p>“I am not useless!” Yang knew that she was.</p><p>“Then why don’t you have a girlfriend after two years of college?” Weiss hid her incredibly smug grin behind the act of biting into an apple. She was learning way too much from Neo.</p><p>“Why you little... I’ll get you for that. Neo figured out how to use her semblance to soundproof a room over the summer you know.” Three pairs of eyes widened at the threat, Weiss’ in excitement, Ruby and Amber’s in concern. “Speaking of such things, swing by our room after dinner Ruby? There’s something that we all want to tell you, as a team.”</p><p>“I’m actually holding a team meeting right after dinner, but I should be able to visit at some point.” Ruby’s eyes focused in one something behind Yang. “Oh hey, there’s Ilia, I’m gonna try to get her to come eat with us, Amber you’re good at handling her, come with?”</p><p>Ilia? That name sounded familiar. Hadn’t Blake talked about an old friend from the White Fang named Ilia? Yang pulled out her scroll to send a quick message to Blake.</p><p>
  <strong>Yang: Blakey, did you have a friend from the Fang named Ilia?<br/>
Blake: Yeah, why?<br/>
Yang: Someone on Ruby’s team is named Ilia, freckles, light brown hair, if she’s faunus she’s hiding it<br/>
Blake: holy shit is she in the cafeteria?<br/>
Yang: yeah<br/>
Blake: keep her there omw</strong>
</p><p>Sounded like it was the same Ilia.</p>
<h6>Amber</h6><p>Amber had no idea what Ruby meant by handling Ilia. All she did was the same thing she did with anyone, be as open and blunt as possible. Ilia had responded well at first, but at some point it seemed like she had gotten under the girl's skin. </p><p>Sure, Ilia tended to do what she said, but it was more because Amber kept calling her out on her bullshit than because they liked each other. Which was a shame because she had a thing for girls with freckles.</p><p>Unsurprisingly, Ilia was sitting by herself when Amber and Ruby approached her, shoveling lasagna down her face in a melancholy fashion.</p><p>“Hey Ilia! Want to come hang out with us and meet Yang and Weiss?” Ruby paid no mind to Ilia’s obviously displeased state of mind.</p><p>“And then what? We can paint each other’s nails and try on cute outfits and talk about pretty girls?” Ilia rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Yeah! That would be awesome!” Ruby completely missed Ilia’s sarcasm.</p><p>“Ilia, you do realize that you’re going to have to at least try to be friends with your team if you want to make it through the next four years, don’t you?” Amber said.</p><p>“That’s... a good point.” Ilia was just as peeved by the fact that Amber was right as Amber was by Ilia’s continued poor behavior. “Fine.”</p><p>Ilia begrudgingly came with them over to the table Yang and Weiss were already seated at. Weiss greeted her as they did.</p><p>Weiss stood up and offered her hand. “Weiss Schnee, pleased to meet-” </p><p>“Okay, this is where I draw the fucking line. There is no way in hell I’m going to sit at the same table as a Schnee!” Ilia turned around wrathfully, only to freeze, staring dumbstruck at a girl with shoulder length black hair and two cat ears that stuck up from the top of her head who stood close behind her.</p><p>“Hi Ilia. Long time no schnee.”</p>
<h6>Ilia</h6><p>For the past two and a half years Ilia had thought that Blake Belladonna, her best friend and secret crush at the time was dead. When she hadn’t come back from the mission with Adam on which she robbed a train everyone assumed that she was dead, Adam wouldn’t say what had happened. Now she understood, Adam had been protecting them from the truth, the truth that Blake was a traitor.</p><p>There simply wasn’t any other way to explain it. Only a traitor would join a huntsman's academy and actually stick around. How could Blake even tolerate being among all these humans for that long? And wait, had she just made a pun based on the Schnee’s name?</p><p>“We need to talk, privately.” Ilia took hold of Blake’s arm, squeezing hard. </p><p>“You should finish eating first.” Blake looked at Ilia with confusion, as if she didn’t understand why she was so pissed off right now. This wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg. She was barely keeping her skin color under control.</p><p>“Now.” Ilia practically growled it, she couldn’t let all of these people find out she was faunus, it would blow her cover immediately.</p><p>“Fine. Follow me.” Blake quickly took them outside, then into a room with mats covering the floor and a rack that held a variety of weapons, locking the door behind her. “Soundproofed training room.”</p><p>“I thought that you were dead for the last two and a half fucking years! But instead I discover this! It’s worse than death, you’re a fucking traitor!” Ilia could feel her skin turning a bright angry red all over, and it was honestly a relief to be able to stop suppressing it for a moment.</p><p>“Ilia, I-”</p><p>“I loved you you know, thank fuck I got over that sometime in, you know, about the last fucking year, because I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE DEAD! What the fuck Blake! What is wrong with you!” Ilia punched one of the walls, as hard as possible. It didn’t break anything. So she did it again. And again.</p><p>“I didn-”</p><p>“We honored you! You were a martyr! W-why? Why?” Ilia collapsed, her back sliding down the wall she had assaulted as she clutched her hand. “Why?” She hated how small her voice sounded.<br/>
“I ran away from the White Fang. When we raided that train Adam was prepared to kill the entire crew. There were faunus and humans in that crew, they hadn’t even done anything. And he didn’t care about them at all. So I saved them and I left. I didn’t know that he let everyone assume I was dead. Me and Yang, we were actually the ones who killed him. Because he kept coming after me, was determined to kill me, make me what he said I should have been. I’m so sorry Ilia, but I did what I did then to protect innocent lives, and that’s the same reason I’m here at this academy.” Blake took a seat with her back against the wall as well, leaving a few inches of space between them.</p><p>For a few minutes Ilia just sat there, taking it all in. Against all reason, she still trusted Blake, she had always been incredibly determined and dedicated to their cause in the White Fang. She was the person Ilia had looked up to most. But now she was here, acting like huntsmen and huntresses were actually good for the world.</p><p>It sounded like Blake had killed Adam in self-defense, which Ilia guessed she couldn’t fault her for, as much as Adam had been an incredible and brilliant leader, he had seemed sort of unhinged near the end. But... she was still a traitor wasn’t she? </p><p>“So then you must have come to Beacon so that you could learn things and come back to the Fang once you graduated, right?” Ilia looked to Blake, desperately trying to reconcile this.</p><p>“No way, I’m out of there for good. The White Fang is still way too violent, even without Adam around. They’re just terrorists now, they’re not helping anyone but themselves. I hoped that you would have come here because you saw that for yourself.” Blake looked disappointed in her. “Is that what you’re going to do then? Go back once you’ve finished and teach other people how to fight so that they can kill more innocents? Well, I think four years at a place like this might help change your mind.”</p><p>“I-yeah, that’s why I’m here.” Ilia almost let slip that her plans were far more short-term than that, but Blake caught onto it anyway.</p><p>“Oh no, Ilia. Tell me you aren’t here to commit some act of subterfuge. Look me in the eyes and tell me. I know when you’re lying.” Blake grabbed Ilia’s chin. In another world it could have been romantic.</p><p>Ilia couldn’t bring herself to meet Blake’s eyes, which told her everything she needed to know.</p><p>“Ilia, I still think of you as my old friend. But if you hurt anyone here that will be impossible. I’m going to give you forty-eight hours. Either run away or come clean to Ozpin, he’s a very understanding person. He accepted me when he knew I was coming from the White Fang and he probably already knows where you came from as well. If you come clean he’ll probably thank you for your honesty and say that he already knew. Please do that.”</p><p>“I-I’ll think about it. But leave me alone.”</p>
<h6>Ruby</h6><p>Even Ruby was concerned about how pissed off Ilia had looked about meeting Blake. She had met Blake a few times before when she had visited her and Yang in Patch during the summers and she liked her. The faunus was very determined to make the world a better place, and while Yang tended to be hanging out with her during most of the time that she was there Ruby had enjoyed her visits. She couldn’t imagine what could have happened to distress Ilia as much as she was.</p><p>“Do those two know each other?” Amber seemed concerned for Blake’s health, and Ruby was too. </p><p>“They’re old friends, it’s a long story with things I’m not allowed to tell you about in it.” Yang shook her head. “Just let them talk it out.”</p><p>“Why did she hate Weiss so much?” Ruby has never met Weiss, but Yang’s stories about her made her sound like a rebel badass, and she didn’t know why someone would hate her for her family. </p><p>“The most likely reason would be that she’s from Mantle. The way in which my father runs the Schnee Dust Company does a great deal of harm there, to Faunus in particular, but also to humans. It is one of many things I will be shortly putting an end to.” Weiss sighed. “Her attitude is understandable, really. I have had to maintain a facade of being on the same side as that vile man.” </p><p>“Not to change the subject but, is lasagna supposed to be this bad?” Ruby made a face as she took an experimental bite of dinner.</p><p>“It’s normal. There’s a good reason people avoid the cafeteria at all costs once they’re juniors and have their own mini kitchen in their dorm room.” Yang stared at her food regretfully. “I came here tonight because I wanted to catch you right out of the infirmary and congratulate you. And also ask you what the hell happened that left you unconscious.”</p><p>“Whaaaat, y’know the whole fight with the death stalker, that’s why.” Ruby was a bad liar.</p><p>“Sure, just tell me for real when you visit later tonight.” Yang saw right through her, as usual.</p><p>“I suppose I don’t really care about keeping whatever shady thing went down secret, so I won’t complain about this.” Amber shrugged.</p><p>“I knew there was something shady going on. Getting knocked out by the death stalker is such a flimsy lie.”</p><p>“There is a very important word that all of you seem to have forgotten the meaning of. Discretion. We are in a public place.” Weiss scolded.</p><p>“Oh, right.” Yang mellowed out, and they spent the rest of dinner chatting amicably and getting to know each other better.</p>
<h6></h6><p>Team RAAP’s dorm room was as simple as all first year dorms. It had two bunk beds on either side of the room, a private bathroom, two large dressers next to the beds, and four modular desks of respectable size arrayed to leave an open area in the center of the room. One window between the dressers looked down over the grounds. It was a bit cramped, but liveable enough for anyone who brought sane amounts of luggage.</p><p>By the time Ruby and Amber got back to their dorm room Ilia had also returned from her conversation with Blake, though she was sulking moodily in an upper bunk bed that she seemed to have claimed for herself.</p><p>“Friend Ruby, you’re back!” Penny had apparently spent the time available to her unpacking, as her bunk bed was neatly arranged and all of her luggage unpacked.</p><p>“Yep, Amber and I got to hang out with my sister and one of her teammates while we ate dinner, it was awesome! But uh, team meeting time?” Ruby subtly checked with Penny to make sure that she still wanted to do this.</p><p>“Yes, Ilia, Amber, there is something that I need to tell you about. If I may have your attention please?” Penny clapped her hands together excitedly. </p><p>“Only if I can give it without leaving this bed.” Ilia sat up and looked down at her teammates.</p><p>Amber took a seat on the bunk beneath Ilia’s. “I’m listening.”</p><p>With a few steps forward Ruby slipped her hand into Penny’s and gave her a slight nod. </p><p>“This is something that I must ask all of you to keep secret with anyone not currently in this room. You may wish to no longer be my teammate at first, but I ask that you please take some time to consider things.” Penny’s introduction certainly was good at grabbing everyone’s full attention. “I am not strictly speaking, human. I am the world’s first artificial life form with an aura. In other words, you could say that I am an android.”</p><p>The room was filled with stunned silence.</p><p>“Well, that was not anything along the lines of what I expected. You’re going to have to prove it.” Ilia said.</p><p>“Allow me to show you.” Penny rolled up the sleeves of her blouse and then proceeded to pop open a panel that ran along her inner forearm, revealing a network of glowing green circuits and mechanical pistons which she displayed for Ilia and Amber. “See? Robot parts.” </p><p>That was enough for Amber and Ilia to break out into frantic questioning, though Ilia remained convinced that it could still be an illusion created with Penny’s unknown semblance even as she asked questions. </p><p>Yes, Penny was her own person who made town choices and didn’t have any programming that dictated her actions. Yes, she had an aura. That last one seemed to satisfy most of their concerns, considering that aura was something only living things could have. </p><p>After helping satisfy the sudden onslaught of curiosity, Ruby felt like things were under control and nobody was freaking out. “If we’re all good here I’m going to talk to Yang about something.”</p><p>“Could Penny come with you? I’d like to have some time to think without her looming over my shoulder.” Amber requested bluntly. </p><p>“I would very much like to meet your sister.” Penny looked expectantly at Ruby. </p><p>“Sure.” Ruby smiled excitedly at Penny as they walked out of the dorm together and made their way for the BYWN dorm on the third floor of the residence halls.</p>
<h6>Blake</h6><p>Blake left the training room concerned for Ilia, and more than a little bit surprised. She’d had no clue that Ilia had once had a crush on her, though at the time she had been infatuated with Adam, so it wasn’t surprising. She also tended to be especially useless with women, as evidenced by how long it took for her to get together with Yang, Neo, and Weiss. </p><p>There probably wasn’t anything else that Blake could do to influence Ilia’s choice. She was clearly still mad at her, and no doubt all other sorts of emotions, and Blake definitely wasn’t the person to help her through it right now. Trying to convince Ilia to come clean and stick around would probably only end up driving her away, which would hurt Ruby’s team by making them lose a person, something she dearly didn’t want to happen.</p><p>Even though it was hopeless, Blake spent the entire walk back to her dorm mulling, twisting, pulling, trying to figure out some way that she could try to make things better, but they all just seemed too risky. Ilia wasn’t a bad person, but that had been two years ago, people change, and even when they start out with good intentions it can go bad, the way Adam had. Her one consolation was that Ilia had ended their talk crying in sadness and not screaming in rage. It meant that she was still more sad than she was angry, and as long as her feelings towards humanity weren’t hatred she could probably still make the right decision on her own.</p><p>Neo signed something to Blake when she got back, but she was too drained to process it. “I’m sorry Neo, that didn’t go well. I’ll talk about it when we tell Ruby about all of us dating, because it affects her too. Good news is that Ruby is fine though, in case Yang forgot to mention it.”</p><p>Strong, slender arms wrapped around her from behind, and Blake turned around to hug Neo back briefly. <i>Would you like some ice cream? Or some</i> ice cream? The lewd nature of the secondary question was conveyed by Neo making a V with her fingers and sticking her tongue through it.</p><p>With a smile Blake shook her head. “I’m just... drained. Ilia was really mad at me. I did okay but...” She trailed off. Having anger directed at her was not something that she was good at handling. It usually left her emotionally shut off for the rest of the day, it reminded her far too much of her days with Adam.</p><p>The soft touches on Blake’s shoulders in response to her admission were very welcome. Neo rubbed Blake’s shoulders firmly, maneuvering her to a sitting position on the bed as Neo worked out the stress building up in her body. “Mmmm, thanks babe.”</p><p>They continued on that way until Blake felt herself fully relax into Neo’s lap with loose shoulders and a much more relaxed state of mind. That was Neo’s cue to move her hands up from Blake’s shoulders to her sensitive cat ears. Her touch was magical, Neo somehow knew all the right places to rub and stroke to help her relax even more into a puddle of purring putty in her hands.</p><p>For a while they stayed like that, Blake simply letting herself be held by her girlfriend. Something about being alone in a room with Neo, who didn’t speak, was magical to her. The wordless understanding of each other that they developed was extraordinarily peaceful, it was a removal of the burden of language. Sometimes she wondered if their other girlfriends felt that way in their private moments with Neo, but that question felt far too intimate to ever ask.</p><p>When Yang and Weiss returned from eating she felt much better, decent enough that she was munching on a sandwich as her dinner. “Hey, how’d dinner go?”</p><p>“You weren’t there to see it but Amber is secretly some sort of sapphic goddess or something. She called Ruby out on being a useless lesbian about her crush on Penny, in front of me and Weiss. Imagine if she had been around when we all had crushes on each other.” Yang took a seat at the table with Blake. “How’d reconnecting with Ilia go?”</p><p>“It was bad. Very bad. I’ll tell the whole story once Ruby’s here, because she needs to know too. In the meantime, kisses?” </p><p>“Much kisses, very kiss.” Yang gave Blake a quick peck on the lips in between bites of her sandwich. </p><p>“You dorks.” Weiss came around to Blake’s other side and gave her her own kiss on the cheek. “Love you.”</p>
<h6>Ruby</h6><p>Ruby was awed by the spacious nature of her sister’s dorm compared to her own. It had its own kitchenette, four well sized dressers, a nice circular dining table, and even some storage closets and a pantry and refrigerator. It was more of an apartment than a dorm. Weirdly though, there was only one single very large bed. “Hey Yang, what’s up? I brought Penny with me.” </p><p>Team BYWN’s reaction to her arrival was mixed, Blake looked stressed about something, Yang excited, Weiss coolly detached, and Neo intensely focused.</p><p>“Oh, I guess that’s fine.” Yang was a little surprised, but seemed to determine that Penny’s presence was fine.</p><p>“Cool, what’s up then?” Ruby was actually pretty jealous of their dorm room, she knew that accommodations got nicer as students progressed into their later years, but this was insane. What were senior dorms like?</p><p>Rather than respond right away, Yang joined hands with Neo, and with Blake, who took hold of Weiss’ hand as well. “We’re dating, all four of us.”</p><p>“That... is... AWESOME! Yang! Congratulations, dad is going to be so proud of you, you’re just like him.” Ruby ran up and gave Yang a high five, though afterward she felt momentarily guilty that Yang’d had to let go of Neo’s hand to do so.</p><p>“Ewwww, Ruby no. Don’t compare me to that lame old man. C’mon.” Yang rolled her eyes, the breath that she had been holding came out as a laugh.</p><p>“Dad is a badass and he still kicks your ass whenever you visit and spar with him.” </p><p>“Yes, but does he have tits? No, therefore I am superior in the eyes of most of the women in this room.” Yang poked the side of her cleavage through her shirt to make her point. Ruby had to admit that she wasn’t wrong as she watched it jiggle briefly in response. Wait, what?</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, Yang. We’re all aware that your ego has been inflated to match the size of your stupid boobs.” Ruby had always been a bit jealous of Yang’s chest, she wasn’t flat or anything, but she was done growing and still on the small side.</p><p>“As much fun as it is to watch you two go at each other, there is serious business that must be discussed as well. I would like to get to the part of the evening where we can hang out and get to know each other better with this already taken care of.” Blake said.</p><p>“Oh, what else is up?” Ruby should have guessed something else was up, that would explain the tension in Blake.</p><p>“Sorry Penny, but you need to leave for a few minutes, for the sake of someone else’s privacy.” Blake apologised.</p><p>“I understand, there are things about myself that you shouldn’t know either.” Penny left with a graceful curtsey.</p><p>With the people whom it didn’t concern out of the room Blake quickly told those who remained about her encounter with Ilia, leaving out the part about Ilia’s old feelings for her. </p><p>It was a lot of information for Ruby. Here she was, just now getting assigned as the leader of a team, and now it looked like said team could just lose one of its members. “What can I even do?”</p><p>“Well, I doubt that there's anything you can do except treat her the way you normally would and give her what advice you can if she asks for it. Confronting her could easily drive her away from you, I told you about this because you deserve to know that one of your people is here maliciously and might be leaving soon. I’m really worried about her, but there isn't much that can be done but wait.” Blake shrugged dejectedly.</p><p>“I’m confident that she’s going to be okay. There’s no way on Remnant for anyone to spend two days living in the same room as Rubes and stay grumpy. Especially a person as good as Ilia.” Yang sat next to Blake and tugged her head onto her shoulder.</p><p>“Yeah! Ilia helped us fight the death stalker during initiation, and she was actually kinda supportive and nice to me when I regained consciousness and then accidentally came out this morning, in her own, roundabout way. I think she’s going to be fine. I’m not saying that’s because of me though, she actually seems like she’s better friends with Amber.” Ruby did her best to encourage Blake, and she meant it too.</p><p>“Thank you Ruby, it means a lot to be able to hear that she has more happening in her life than our relationship and the White Fang.” Blake seemed to relax into Yang’s embrace a little bit more easily.</p><p>“Can we invite Penny back in now? I don’t like excluding her.”</p><p>“Yeah, might as well have your crush come back here, I’m sure you just hate to be separated.” Yang teased.</p><p>“Yaaang. Just because you’re right doesn’t mean you’re correct.” Ruby rolled her eyes as she opened the door. “You can come back in Penny.”</p>
<h6>Neo</h6><p>Neo found herself more sympathetic to Ilia’s plight than she was towards most people. Choosing to come to Beacon had been something of a similar circumstance for her, considering the life of crime she had led as a result of who had raised her. Still, it wasn’t like she could do anything about it, so it didn’t bother her in itself as much as she was bothered by the way that it distressed Blake and Ruby. Team BYWN had somehow become her family when she ended up in Beacon, and Ruby was family by extension, considering that she was Yang’s sister. And family had always been everything to her.</p><p>So, when Ruby invited Penny to come back into the room, Neo found herself wanting to talk about her life, something she did very rarely. Penny’s presence or Ruby’s newness somehow wasn’t enough to discourage her, even when she could easily be resistant to sharing even the slightest details when asked.</p><p><i>Do both of you know sign language?</i> Signing the question to its recipients was usually a fruitless endeavor, but most of the students came here knowing it as a matter of standard curriculum, so it was really more intended to get everyone’s attention than to ensure they understood her.</p><p>“Yeah.” Ruby’s bodily reaction betrayed that Yang hadn’t told her that Neo didn’t speak, but rather than the usual concern people expressed at first, she simply accepted the information and made a noticeable effort to keep an eye on Neo’s hands.</p><p>“I am proficient in sign language. Would you like me to also speak with sign language.” Penny’s reaction was odd, she didn’t seem fazed in any way. </p><p><i>My hearing is perfectly fine, thank you.</i> Neo glared slightly at Penny to indicate that her thanks were sarcastic, but the girl seemed to miss the point entirely. That was a bit annoying. Nevertheless, she pressed on with making conversation. <i>Tell me Ruby, what has Yang told you about me?</i></p><p>“Well, most of the time she complains about you being bitchy, smug, snide, sadistic, selfish, cruel, heartless, and unreasonable. But she usually ends up wishing that you were there because she knows that you’ll never actually do anything to hurt her and are the most loyal person she’s ever met. Also she talks about what a good cuddler you are. In retrospect I’m surprised I didn’t already guess that you were dating.” Ruby straight up dumped Yang’s personal ramblings into the room and Neo delighted in it. Everyone else however seemed a little awkward about it. “Was I supposed to not say that?”</p><p>“Now that you’ve said it I’m probably in for a world of hurt.” Yang was very clearly having difficulty choosing between happiness and concern for her wellbeing.</p><p><i>Don’t worry about it, Yang will be consensually punished for her crimes later. I figured out how to soundproof a room with my semblance over the break. And Ruby, would you be interested in a reward for your honesty?</i> Neo smirked at the sisters as she signed.</p><p>“Um, sure?” Ruby shrugged.</p><p>Neo took a small chocolate out of her pouch and tossed it across the room to Ruby, who caught it in her mouth.</p><p>“Oh no, I am not letting you train Ruby the way you-uh, I’m not letting you train Ruby.” Yang prevented herself from revealing it very poorly.</p><p><i>Like I what Yang? Like I trained a certain other person in this room? All I’m doing is rewarding her for spilling some very juicy beans, it’s all quite innocent. Perhaps your mind went there because you actually want something like that to happen?</i> Neo was more than slightly concerned that she might be going too far right now, but if she was it wasn’t in the way she had expected it to be because Yang’s eyes were still lavender. In fact, she was breathing more quickly and twiddling her hands the way she did when she was trying to hide the fact that something was making her far too horny. Interesting, very interesting.</p><p>“Neo, you’re scaring Penny.” Weiss took hold of Neo’s hands, the equivalent of slapping a hand over her mouth. Penny did in fact look confused at best, and uncomfortable at worst. Scaring was an exaggeration, but Neo did need to stop.</p><p>Neo took a moment to take a deep breath and tell herself to stop teasing before nodding in response. <i>My apologies Penny. Sometimes I forget my situation in my pursuit of self-enjoyment. </i></p><p>“Oh, I’m not bothered, rather, I don’t understand why you would train a person. I find it very confusing.” Penny was in fact confused, as Neo had ascertained.</p><p>“You sweet summer child. Trust me, you don’t want to know about or understand any of Neo’s fetishes.” Blake shook her head.</p><p>“What do you mean by fetish? I am aware that a fetish can be a form of tribal art or religious ceremony, but I do not believe that is the definition you are using.” Penny was only getting more confused as Neo doubled over in silent laughter, perfectly happy to watch this conversation from the sidelines.</p><p>“Er, Penny. Have you received proper sex education?” Weiss seemed to think herself brave enough to ask the question. </p><p>“No, actually. I was homeschooled by my father, and while he is a very brilliant and kind man, he is sometimes very scatterbrained as well. My education lacks in some very strange ways.”</p><p>“You should probably ask Glynda about taking a sex ed class. They have them here because there are plenty of people who come in from places other than the standardized school systems. Same applies to whatever odd knowledge you lack, all the professors are great about helping students fill in their missing knowledge.” Weiss subtly avoided having to educate Penny herself.</p><p>“Thank you Weiss, I will do that tomorrow.” Penny nodded excitedly. What a strangely innocent girl.</p><p><i>Speaking of coming here from places that aren’t standardised school systems, do you know how it is that I came to Beacon?</i> It was more than a little bit difficult for Neo to steady her hands as she kept laughing at how Weiss regularly had her partners do depraved things to her and yet she couldn’t muster the courage to explain kink to an adult freshman.</p><p>“Wow, are you sure that you want to segue into that so soon Neo?” Yang looked at Neo with surprise.</p><p><i>Any sister of yours is a sister of mine Yang. Besides, I miss him. Talking always makes it better.</i> Neo smiled one of her rare genuine, non-smug smiles, specially for Ruby and Penny. <i>I grew up homeless and orphaned on the streets of Mistral. The other kids that I stuck with to survive always bullied me and took my food because I couldn’t talk but I was better at stealing than any of them. One day I stole from the wrong person, or the right person depending on how you look at it. Roman caught me trying to pick his pocket instantly, but instead of retaliating he asked me if I wanted to earn some money for myself.</i></p><p>Ruby raised her hand. “Um, Roman? As in Roman Torchwick?”</p><p>
  <i>Yes, that Roman. If you say bad things about him I will stab you, and I will not regret it. He was only getting started back then, just another gang member. I helped him out when he needed someone who wouldn’t attract attention. We did a lot of business for a month after we met. Then he said that he was looking for a roommate to split his rent with. I was a kid and it was the least convincing lie anyone had ever told me. So I moved in with him, and I stopped having to worry about getting food and shelter. He taught me to fight, helped me unlock my aura, and he raised me. I know he has a reputation as a cruel, impatient crime lord, he was a father to me, even if he always denied it. As I got better and older I became the Agrippa to his Augustus Caesar. We built his empire together.</i>
</p><p>Penny seemed about to say something but Neo cut her off. <i>I don’t regret the things I did back then and I never will. I did it for my father. I can recognise that it was never moral. I don’t care. My only regret is that I didn’t spend more time with him, wasn’t there to protect him when he was murdered. Instead I tried for the next best thing, revenge. While I was trying to figure out an infiltration route and plan Cinder’s assassination Ozpin came and found me. He beat me up and offered me a scholarship at Beacon. At first I accepted because all of Roman’s old enemies now wanted me dead, and because I wanted to get stronger to get revenge on Cinder. Somewhere along the way though it became less about revenge. I found new people that I care about instead.</i></p>
<h6>Ruby</h6><p>Ruby stared at Neo in silence. Yang had always said that Neo was complicated, but this was extraordinary, even for someone crazy enough to want to be a hunter. She was fine with the no doubt terrible things she did in the past, but now she wanted to protect people? That seemed strange.</p><p><i>The rude things Yang says about me are largely accurate, I am indeed selfish. I only care about protecting four people now, instead of one. I’m no saint, and barely a huntress, but I assure you that I am a woman of my word and will do my job, both now and when I graduate.</i> Neo stared at Ruby intensely, seeming to look for something.</p><p>“I don’t get it, I really don’t get it. But if Yang likes you I guess I don’t need to.” Ruby was seriously confused by Neo, but she couldn’t really bring herself to dislike her, even if she had been surprisingly inappropriate. In fact, Neo’s earlier, lewd comments had put an image in her head of being on a leash being petted by the ice cream colored girl.</p><p>They all spent the rest of the evening talking about more casual matters, such as what to ex[ect from classes and each professor’s quirks. Eventually, Yang managed to draw the real story of what had happened in the cave out of her, but nobody had any idea what it could mean. </p><p>It was enough for Ruby to decide that she definitely liked and approved of all of Yang’s girlfriends, even if they could be very strange, like the way that Weiss was a total tsundere, sort of like Ilia. She wondered if they would be good friends without Weiss’ family name making Ilia think that she hated her. She should try to explain to Ilia that Weiss was a good person tomorrow. </p><p>By the time Ruby got back from hanging out with Yang she was hella tired, and Ilia and Amber had actually already gone to their beds, so she did the same, claiming a top bunk for herself. </p><p>“Good night Penny.” Ruby murmured softly, trying not to disturb anyone as she lay down in bed.</p><p>“Good night friend Ruby.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Awakening</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>okay, finally got things starting with smut in this chapter. Pretty tame though, it's only a setup for things to come.</p><p>This is the beginning of biweekly updates</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The morning of the day after initiation was begun by some unknown and heartless professor going through the halls at an ungodly hour blaring an airhorn and shouting that breakfast was to be eaten quickly in preparation for the day’s events. Everyone other than Penny groaned painfully about it, bringing them just a little bit closer together. </p><p>Breakfast was slightly awkward. Penny made multiple attempts to start conversation, but they fell flat on her teammates, who were not morning people. Ruby would have been happy to relentlessly talk with her team, but she was concerned about the situation with Ilia and didn’t dare say too much. Amber just ate her food robotically, seemingly completely dead inside up until about an hour after they had woken up, when she pretty much returned to her usual self.</p><p>Immediately following breakfast was an extensive series of lectures about the school’s policies of inclusivity and their legal compliance with related nondiscrimination laws. It was a little bit comforting to hear her school acknowledging her existence and defending it. Then student health employees talked about the counselling services they offered. </p><p>It took a while, but they eventually got to the parts that Ruby didn’t already know about due to having an excess of personal investment in them. Curriculum. From her pre-entrance testing she had been placed into advanced weapon maintenance and survival classes. She also had a class specifically for leaders on her schedule, one day a week. Ilia was with her in advanced survival, and Penny in advanced weapon maintenance. Aside from that their classes were all shared.</p><p>With mandatory introductory activities taken care of, they were all sent off to lunch, and then given the freedom to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day. Ruby wanted to meet some of her professors, mostly to take a look at their weapons, but she decided that she was going to deal with the mystery of the cave first. Since the full moon was tonight, it was important to learn what was going on.</p><p>Professor Goodwitch waved Ruby through into the elevator that led to Ozpin’s office, saying that he had an open door policy most hours of the day. Once she arrived at the scenic office however, Ozpin didn’t notice her presence. She cleared her throat carefully, feeling awkward.</p><p>“Hmmm?” Ozpin looked up from his desk. ”Oh, miss Rose. Please, take a seat. I take it that you’re here about the initiation incident?”</p><p>“Yes sir.” Ruby sat stiffly in a chair.</p><p>“Oh please, call me Oz. I’m practically an old family friend.” Ozpin brushed aside Ruby’s formality.</p><p>“I think I’ll just go with Ozpin.”</p><p>“As you wish. If you could just begin with why you went into the cave, and move on from there?”</p><p>Ruby told Ozpin everything that had happened, but she left out exactly what the voice she heard had said, just in case he wanted to stop her from following the instructions. When she was done, Ozpin sat back in his chair and adjusted his spectacles contemplatively.</p><p>“Am I correct to suppose that the voice you heard before losing consciousness gave you instructions on how to contact it further? And that you withheld this information because you intend to follow those instructions and fear that I will attempt to stop you?” Ozpin missed nothing.</p><p>“Are you going to try to stop me?” Ruby pretended to be unfazed.</p><p>“Don’t look so surprised, I was a teenager as well once. I will only try to stop you if you try to do whatever it is you must do without any form of supervision. In other words, I must insist on accompanying you as far as possible into this mystery.”</p><p>“So you don’t know what’s going on?”</p><p>“I have no idea. That cave was sealed off because students frequently reported getting lost in it’s depths. Never fatally, but for as long as two days. Not to mention the gigantic death stalker. The fact that you encountered no crossroads indicates that whatever is happening is extraordinary indeed. Even Bartholomew has no concrete idea what that cave is or what civilization used to reside in those ruins, though you might want to ask him about it, or tell him about whatever you discover. Just ask him to keep it confidential for the time being.”</p><p>“Who?”</p><p>“Your history professor. Last name Oobleck. Brilliant man. Very difficult to talk to. However I digress, when do you intend to make contact with this mystery entity?”</p><p>“Tonight. It requires the full moon, then I’m supposed to somehow follow the smell of my blood.”</p><p>“Interesting. Would it be acceptable for me to meet you in the main hall at, say, ten in the evening?”</p><p>“That’s fine.”</p><p>“Very well then, do you have any questions for me, about your classes or the school?”</p><p>“No.” Ruby hesitated. There was something, and no doubt Ozpin could tell that much. “Well, I have been wondering, why am I the leader of my team? Hasn’t there been some kind of mistake?” She was not prepared to deal with any of the things she was dealing with right now.</p><p>“No, it was quite deliberate. You have the makings of an excellent leader.”</p><p>“How? I completely messed up when we were fighting those beowolves.”</p><p>“You did far more things correctly than you messed up, with no prior training. You naturally took charge of the situation, not because of pride, but because you saw that you had knowledge that was useful. You relied on your allies' skills where you lacked experience. You made a mistake and quickly worked to correct it the first time. You managed to create a successful plan under incredible pressure, and had the charisma for everyone around you to follow that plan. You are already doing far better than most of the leaders in your class. In some very important ways you are one of the most emotionally mature teenagers I have ever had the pleasure to teach.”</p><p>“Oh. Okay?” Ruby couldn’t bring herself to believe anything that the old headmaster was saying. “Can I ask you for some advice though?”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“How is it possible to help someone who doesn’t really want any help?”</p><p>“It isn’t. I advise that you don’t try. Sometimes you must simply wait, even when the person in question is in pain.”</p><p>“I don’t know if I can wait. This person has a time limit to make a choice, and I don’t want them to end up making the wrong one.”</p><p>“In that case, I believe that the best course of action is to show them kindness until they feel that they can wait no longer for help. Then they either will or will not come to you.”</p><p>Ruby frowned. “I really hoped that I could do something actively, instead of just waiting.”</p><p>“You’ll have the opportunity to be more active in the future. Deeper personal bonds make that easier.” Ozpin nodded sympathetically.</p><p>“Well, thanks Ozpin. I really appreciate your advice.” Ruby stood up and shook Ozpin’s hand.</p><p>“My pleasure, it’s why I keep an open door.”</p><h6>Yang</h6><p>Blake and Weiss had left early that morning. They wanted to hang out with Dr. Oobleck a bit before the semester started. Ever since the mission to Mountain Glen team BYWN had become pretty good friends with him, at some point they had started to actually enjoy his caffeine-fueled lectures. </p><p>Yang was doing some light reading when Neo tapped her on the shoulder. “What’s up?”</p><p><i>There’s something I want to ask you, and I want you to know that your answer is completely between us, and I will not judge you.</i> Neo solemnly signed to her.</p><p>“Well yeah, I honestly can’t imagine you judging me for anything. You’ve done so much anyway that most things anyone else does are pretty minute.” Yang shrugged.</p><p>
  <i>Are you attracted to Ruby?</i>
</p><p>“Wha-fuck!” Yang jumped from her seat, shocked. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Panic shot through her and she hid herself under her pillow. “How?” She knew that Neo couldn’t respond to her with her face buried in a pillow, but she didn’t know what else to do.</p><p>A gentle whistle filled Yang’s ears. She had never whistled before, it was the closest she had ever come to speaking. It was somehow comforting. Neo’s hands dug into her shoulders, rubbing. Neo pressed her body gently against Yang’s in a hug. </p><p>Yang lifted her head. Fingers danced in front of her.</p><p><i>It’s okay, it’s okay. No judgement. I love you Yang, nothing will ever change that. You aren’t broken.</i> </p><p>“I-what?” </p><p>
  <i>It’s okay. You’re going to be fine.</i>
</p><p>“How? How can this be okay?”</p><p>
  <i>You’re attracted to the people you’re attracted to. You can’t control that. And, Ruby is pretty cute, so I really can’t blame you. I can’t judge this.</i>
</p><p>“She really is.” Yang actually smiled and nuzzled into Neo. She actually did feel kind of safe here, it was somehow nice to admit this, now that she didn’t have to be afraid of a reaction.</p><p>
  <i>So tell me, when I was teasing Ruby yesterday, were you picturing me collaring both of you? Making you perform lewd acts together?</i>
</p><p>“Yes.” Yang whimpered, but this time it was not out of fear, nor shame.</p><p><i>Do you want to show her how good it feels to obey me?</i> </p><p>“Yes. I do.” Powerful shivers made their way down Yang’s spine as she whimpered desperately. It really did feel so good to obey Neo, so good to tell her the truth. </p><p><i>Is this only a hypothetical fantasy, or is it something that you want to actually happen?</i> </p><p>“I really want it, I really want to bring her into our relationship and have sex with her.” Yang finally admitted it. </p><p>
  <i>Okay, let’s get to work on a plan then.</i>
</p><p>“What plan?”</p><p>
  <i>A plan to allow you to bring her into our current relationship with Weiss and Blake without making them hate you or deceiving them or her.</i>
</p><p>“You’re saying that you actually want to do that?”</p><p>
  <i>I said that she was cute. I meant it. Besides, why wouldn’t I want to help my beautiful girlfriend get what she wants?</i>
</p><p>“Because this is not a normal thing to want.”</p><p>
  <i>You know that I’ve never given a damn about norms.</i>
</p><h6>Ilia</h6><p>The afternoon sun beat down on Ilia as she lay on the roof of the massive dormitory building. In a way it was comforting, perhaps some indistinct reptilian part of her nature still instinctively wanted to sunbather herself on a warm rock. Mostly though, it was annoyingly hot. The reason that she had made her way all the way up here in the first place though was because even the uncomfortable heat was preferable to the mass swarms of humanity that could be found nearly everywhere in Beacon.</p><p>She was confused, lost, and uncertain. She needed some time to herself to think. As a result, her displeasure was distinct when she heard the very same door she had picked to get onto the roof being opened with a key. She considered running, but couldn’t really bring herself to care if some faculty member were to scold her. What would they do? Kick her out? That was probably happening soon anyway.</p><p>To Ilia’s surprise however, rather than some stony-faced professor, the person who stepped out onto the roof was a pretty young woman with a pair of rabbit ears atop her head carrying a foldable beach recliner and wearing simple brown clothes that covered most of her skin.. Her fellow faunus waved to her upon seeing her and walked over to where she lay. </p><p>“Hello, I’m Velvet. Do you mind if I set myself up next to you?”</p><p>“Sure.” Ilia shrugged, both physically and mentally. She supposed that she could use the company of a fellow faunus who was uninvolved in the messy business around her.</p><p>Velvet smiled at Ilia gratefully and set up her recliner before laying in it. “I haven’t seen you before, are you a freshman?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“It’s always nice to see more of us joining the ranks of huntresses in Vale.”</p><p>Ilia sighed audibly. Of course this girl would be able to tell that she was faunus as well. “Yeah, I really just can’t wait to be a part of oppressing my own people.”</p><p>“If that’s what you think of huntsman’s academies, why did you come here?”</p><p>Because Trifta had told her to. At first. “I’m not even sure anymore.” Ilia felt something about her teammates, despite only knowing them briefly. Against all reason. She almost wanted to stay, just to see what was going to happen. But staying would mean abandoning her family. Abandoning the White Fang. She wouldn’t be able to go back if she did.</p><p>“Are you from Mantle or Mistral?”</p><p>“Mantle. How’d you know?”</p><p>“Things aren’t so bad here in Vale. The people here respect each other and live peacefully, almost everywhere you go. From what I know about Vacuo people are too busy trying to survive the harsh conditions to be prejudiced. That leaves Mantle, and Mistral. The Atlas military is well-intentioned, but you’re probably right that they’re a part of the problem because of how they defend the businesses that discriminate. In Mistral, even though Haven supposedly does it’s best not to allow students to be of poor character, the huntsmen who graduate from there always end up being tougher on faunus crime than human crime. And so many faunus drop out of those classes along the way.” This time it was Velvet’s turn to sigh, though hers was more one of enjoyment in her sunbathing.</p><p>“Are you trying to tell me that huntsmen aren’t actually all bad?”</p><p>“Well, I’d like you to consider it. It would be a shame to lose a potential faunus huntress like you from Beacon. We need to stick together. Keep working to make the world better.”</p><p>“That’s why the White Fang is around though.”</p><p>Velvet sat up at that raising an eyebrow in concern. “It used to be, but even with Adam Taurus no longer in charge, the White Fang is violent in all the wrong ways.”</p><p>“Just because of a little destruction of property when there’s nobody inside it?”</p><p>It took Velvet a moment to consider her next words. “Are you aware of the recent attacks on the Schnee Dust Company mines?”</p><p>That wasn’t actually something that Ilia had heard of. She had been operating in the forests of Vale for a while, and hadn’t actually had access to news at the secluded White Fang hideout. “No, I’ve been away from internet access for a while, up until I came here.” She didn’t like where this was going.</p><p>“I see. They collapsed a number of the deepest mine shafts in one of the mines not far from Mantle. During the day shift. Most of the workers who died were faunus, because we always get relegated to the worst conditions down there. Then they called all of the faunus working in those mines traitors, said that they deserved it.”</p><p>“No.” Ilia’s voice was small, far too small. “No, they wouldn’t do that.” The White Fang was all the family she had left. They couldn’t be responsible for something like that. But it was the same sort of thing that they wanted to do here at Beacon, wasn’t it? Would they even care about Blake and the other faunus students?</p><p>“I’m sorry, but it’s not difficult to find articles about it. You can check for yourself”</p><p>Ilia curled up into a ball. “What’s the point then? Hunters kill faunus, the White Fang kills faunus. What is there to do but run away to Menagerie?”</p><p>“You can still fight. You can train to be the best huntress you can be and then go to Mistral or Mantle and fight everyone who wants to do us harm, not for the military, but on your own terms. Personally, once my team graduates we’re going to Menagerie, and we’re going to teach people how to fight there. They still don’t have a proper huntsmans academy.”</p><p>“That’s very similar to a lie that I told about why I was here yesterday.”</p><p>“Maybe it doesn’t have to be a lie.”</p><h6>Ruby</h6><p>All of Ruby’s teachers were very interesting people. Professor Port had trapped her for nearly half an hour with a story about how he had once hunted down an entire swarm of baby death stalkers and their “mother.” Now doctor Oobleck was insisting on giving her a monologue about everything he knows about the civilization that used to inhabit the Emerald Forest. </p><p>“They were a very primitive tribe, but somehow they were able to survive frequent attacks from the grimm without the safety afforded by the professional armies that kingdoms have ordinarily used to defend nearby settlements. They predate even Vale, but it is unlikely that they have any relations to the original settlers of Vale. All that we know about them is based on the primitive art near the cave entrance.”</p><p>“This art depicts a variety of strange creatures that sometimes vaguely resemble some animals, and some that have no known likeness whatsoever. Strange creatures, often humanoid, yet beastly. Utterly culturally unique, and completely confounding. The strangest historic puzzle I have ever had the pleasure of studying. Why, I would give up my left leg to discover the secrets of their civilization. Based on the cave paintings they fought with the power of blessings from their gods, though of course that is simply fiction.” Oobleck zoomed about his office even as he spoke, pulling out pictures of pictographs from seemingly random drawers as he described them.</p><p>“Cool. Thanks, I guess.” Ruby had sort of understood that, though she really wasn’t good at keeping up with people who talked that quickly. It wasn’t very helpful though.</p><p>On her way Ruby happened to run into Weiss and Blake on their way into Oobleck’s office. </p><p>“Hey Ruby, taking a liking to Dr. Oobleck?” Blake nodded in greeting as they stopped to talk. </p><p>“Not exactly, I was actually just asking him about that cave and the ancient civilization that used to be in the Emerald Forest. He’s a bit difficult for me to understand.” Ruby liked talking with Yang’s girlfriends, it sure helped that they were all really pretty. </p><p>“You get used to it. It’s a real boon in the field, where fast communication is essential. His knowledge is similarly impressive.” Weiss looked at Ruby observantly, studying her. </p><p>“Well he didn’t really know anything useful for this whole situation.” Ruby shrugged. </p><p>“That’s a shame, do let us know of any developments that may occur. I find the situation most fascinating.” Weiss nodded a farewell and walked into Oobleck’s office with Blake’s hand in her own. </p><p>They already knew that she was going to follow the instructions she’d been given tonight, but she hadn’t mentioned Ozpin’s presence. It should be fine though, they hadn’t asked, and he would only make whatever was going to happen that night safer. </p><p>Since she was going to meet her other professors in their classes anyway, Ruby decided to head back to the dorms and just take some time to relax. When she returned Amber was already there, reading in her bunk. </p><p>“Yo.” Amber didn’t look up from her book, but she nodded in greeting whenRuby came in. </p><p>“Hey Amber.” Ruby felt a bit awkward as she kicked off her boots and got into her own bed. She was not used to sharing an immediate living space with others, and casual silences like this. “Are you cool about Penny?” They hadn’t had a moment of privacy to discuss Penny’s secret all day, and she wanted to make sure that things were good. </p><p>“Yeah. I’m convinced that she’s just as much a person as anyone else. Dunno about Ilia though, she seems too distracted with her own issues, whatever they are, to be dealing with all that yet.” Amber waved a hand in the air vaguely to indicate all that. </p><p>“Good, good.” Ruby turned her focus back to her scroll, feeling a little more at ease about the way her team was getting along. </p><p>Dinner that evening was peaceful. Ruby, Amber, and Penny happened to gather in the cafeteria at the same time. Ilia’s absence was noticeable, and made Ruby worry, but she had fun spending time with her other teammates. It turned out that Penny could run on biofuel, she had just wanted time to think about what she would tell everyone last night. </p><p>Rather than follow the others back to the dorm however, Ruby went to the training rooms after dinner to look for a sparring partner. She felt the need to work off the nervous energy she had in anticipation of finding the cause of the recent strange events under the light of the moon. </p><p>The only other person at these odd hours ended up being none other than Ilia. The faunus didn’t want to talk, but Ruby agreed to spar with her in the hopes that she might open up a little. </p><p>Ilia made her move as soon as the training room door closed behind them. She lashed out with her whip, even while Ruby was still in the process of unfolding Crescent Rose. </p><p>Ruby tumbled to the ground in time and rolled to put a little bit of distance between herself and Ilia as she raised Crescent Rose and cane up in a crouch. They stared at each other for a moment, considering their next moves. </p><p>Emotionlessly, Ilia lashed out at Ruby’s arm and Ruby deflected her whip with the shaft of Crescent Rose, but it wrapped around it instead and Ilia quickly activated the lightning dust stored in her whip’s handle. </p><p>Even with electricity coursing painfully through her body, Ruby managed to yank Crescent Rose out of Ilia’s grip, though doing so sent her stumbling back momentarily. It was enough for Ilia to make another lash at her, this one connecting solidly with her leg, forcing her to use her semblance before receiving another jolt. </p><p>As a cloud of rose petals, Ruby slipped herself close to Ilia and rematerialized with an upward slash that connected solidly before she was able to block or dodge. However, Ilia recovered quickly and on the back arc of Ruby’s swing managed to land her own blow with her whip. </p><p>Things went back and forth like this for a few minutes, Ilia gradually gaining the upper hand as she grew accustomed to predicting where Ruby was going to strike with her semblance. When the buzzer finally sounded as she clattered to the ground from being electrocuted again, Ruby was too tired to get up right away. </p><p>“Don’t go easy on me next time.” Ilia was angry. </p><p>“Sorry, I’m not very good at fighting people. I just don’t want to hurt anyone.” Ruby bowed her head apologetically. </p><p>“You get used to it.” Ilia took a seat next to her, suddenly becoming more sad than angry. </p><p>“I hope I don’t!” That was a terrifying idea, getting used to hurting people was nothing like what a huntress does. “Are you?” </p><p>“Sorta, I guess. Although it is kind of hard to bring myself to fight cute girls, even when they’re human.” Ilia chuckled darkly. </p><p>“How did you know I knew you were Faunus?” Ruby made an effort not to look away in embarrassment at being called pretty, and succeeded. </p><p>“I just sort of assumed that you would know these things as a team leader. I may have lightly skimmed over the paperwork they made me do to be allowed to hide it.” Ilia’s eyes narrowed, and spots on her skin that Ruby had thought were freckles turned black. “How did you find out?”</p><p>“Blake told me. I don’t want you to leave.” There was no point in hiding it now. </p><p>“I’m sure you’d get another teammate.” Ilia shrugged, and her spots turned light blue. </p><p>“I don’t want another teammate. I want you.” Ruby wasn’t entirely why she said it, but it was true. She liked Ilia, even if she was standoffish, and probably misguided. She was determined to do what she thought was right, and that was the most important thing about a huntress. </p><p>“Why? That makes no sense.” The spots on Ilia were now yellow-green. </p><p>“Because you’re brave, you’re determined to help people, and you’ve already helped me by being here, yesterday, after initiation.” </p><p>“I... I have to go!” Ilia jumped up in a sudden hurry, her skin tinting slightly pink for a moment before she got it under control and bolted out of the room. </p><p>Ruby checked her scroll and groaned. She still needed to pass two more hours before it would be time to meet up with Ozpin.</p><h6>Weiss</h6><p>Weiss focused intently on the textbook she was reviewing as some audacious soul whose footsteps she didn’t recognize took a seat across from her in the empty Beacon library. They would meet her wrath just as soon as she finished this chapter, or worse if they interrupted her. </p><p>Fortunately for her visitor, they remained in silence until Weiss deigned to look up at them glaringly. It was Ilia. The glare faded, and she waited for the girl to say something. </p><p>And waited. And waited. They stared at each other in silence for far too long. “What do you want?” Weiss immediately regretted her tone as Ilia flinched in response.</p><p>“I um, I was told that you aren’t like your father. If that is the case I’m sorry about the thing I said to you yesterday.” Ilia was unexpectedly meek. </p><p>“It’s a common misconception, and one with evidence supporting it. You are forgiven.” </p><p>“There is sort of one other thing. If it’s okay, I’d like some advice.” Ilia was twiddling her thumbs. </p><p>“Ilia, I am happy to help you. Not just as an upperclassman, but because you’re Blake’s friend, and as far as I’m concerned that makes you my friend. So please, feel free to spit it out anytime tonight.” </p><p>“Well, I was thinking, your father isn’t a good person, which means that he probably isn’t a good family member either, right? I’m sorry if this is too personal.” </p><p>“You are correct. There is no love between us, and there never has been, the opposite in fact.”</p><p>“Right. So you pretty much had to leave your family because he was a bad person to have in your life. But what about the rest of your family?” </p><p>“My mother is beyond my reach either way. My sister has already made her own path. I worry about my brother often, he is growing up under that miserable household alone, but I am doing what I must for the purpose of doing good in the world. There will always be future opportunities to reconnect with those who deserve to be close with me. And” Weiss smiled, “coming to Beacon has made my family even larger.” </p><p>“I see. That does make sense.” Ilia seemed to come to a conclusion. “Thank you Weiss.” </p><p>“Good, now let me study in peace.” Weiss smiled gently to indicate that she wasn’t exactly annoyed by Ilia’s presence. </p><p>“Why are you already studying anyway?” </p><p>“I always like to prepare myself for the upcoming semester by looking casually through the text for a glimpse at what is being taught.” </p><p>“Weird.” Ilia stared at Weiss. “Okay, I’ll leave you. Thank you for speaking with me.”</p><p>“You are less bothersome than the average person. Most people would hide their dislike of me. I appreciate honesty, as I believe Ozpin does as well.” </p><p>“Who didn’t Blake tell?” </p><p>“Amber and Penny.”</p><p>“That’s actually worse in a way. Now I’m going to have to tell them later.” Ilia groaned and covered her face with her hands. Then she got up and left Weiss in silence.</p><h6>Ruby</h6><p>Ruby bounced excitedly on the tips of her toes. It was very nearly time to begin, the moon was out and she could distantly make out the sounds of Ozpin’s footfalls drawing nearer to her. There was also something that tickled at the back of her nose, a faint, metallic scent. Probably blood. It was weird, she had never smelled blood before, it had always seemed too weak a smell to notice most of the time. </p><p>“Hurry up old man!” Ruby shouted at Ozpin impatiently as he walked into view. She could already tell which way they needed to go from the entrance hall. </p><p>“Oh, now that was uncalled for. I’ll have you know that these old bones have plenty of vitality left in them.” To prove a point, Ozpin suddenly rushed from the foot of the staircase he had walked down to the main doors, leaving afterimages behind him. </p><p>“Great! I guess this means I don’t need to hold back on speed then.” Ruby started running and sniffing the air, dashing forward with the occasional speed boost from her semblance as she made her way towards her destination. </p><p>The scent led her to the gardens, and Ozpin was able to follow close behind her. She made her way through twisting paths and around hedges as it gradually grew stronger. She found herself growing to somehow like it, and the anticipation of discovery excited her, urging her onward. </p><p>Then there was a wall. The scent led her to the center of a square enclosed by hedges. Of course, it wasn’t a real obstacle. Ruby used her semblance to rapidly ascend the eight foot hedge, wincing slightly as she landed among the scratchy branches at the top and looked down, into the center.</p><p>What awaited her hurt her eyes. It was like looking too closely at an optical illusion. Each side of the square hollow in the center of this batch of hedges was only about a foot long, but below her and within the space of that patch was an entire secluded clearing that was ringed with hedges and had a simple mound in the earth from which a cave very similar to the one in the Emerald Forest dug into the earth.</p><p>“Well, I don’t recall filing the paperwork for this renovation.” Ozpin quipped as he jumped up beside Ruby, still completely composed and not even out of breath.</p><p>“How is this even possible?” Ruby looked on in awe.</p><p>“Magic?” Ozpin shrugged and hopped down to the ground within the enclosure.</p><p>Ruby looked at him with concern for a moment but when he seemed to be fine, jumped down herself. The scent of blood faded as she did so. She had arrived at her destination. Wherever that was. “I feel like we're supposed to go into that cave again.”</p><p>“That would make sense, your other encounter occurred underground as well, so perhaps whatever entity may exist is naturally located underground.” Ozpin looked thoughtful.</p><p>With a mutual shrug, both explorers began to walk into the cave, their mood much more serious as they neared whatever awaited Ruby beneath the earth. She could feel the tension in the air, the cave itself felt alive somehow, and she could have sworn she felt it shifting under her feet.</p><p>Finally, they reached a large cave, the same one that Ruby had wandered into yesterday. “This is the same cave as yesterday, it’s exactly the same.”</p><p>“That is concerning.” Ozpin looked around.</p><p>As they walked into the expansive cave, what appeared to be bioluminescent mold sparsely lit up the walls, and Ruby put away the meager light of her scroll that had brought them this far. The room was dim, but it was possible to see around the whole thing, and to walk safely.</p><p>Nothing more happened as they walked further into the cave and looked out over the lake within it. “I’m going to try spilling some of my blood. It seemed like that was what did something last time.”</p><p>Upon seeing a nod from Ozpin, Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose and lowered her aurora. She ran her thumb lovingly along the blade and held it out before her pointed downward, letting the blood drip onto the ground. Once more, she felt a great deal of pitch and movement, though this time it wasn’t overwhelming, but rather a sense of something stirring.</p><p>After a few seconds Ruby reactivated her aura and let the cut seal itself closed. Over the water faint lights slowly began to appear, almost like fireflies. They lethargically began to gather in a single location, thousands of them appearing from nowhere and gradually forming an image.</p><p>The vague outline of a woman emerged from the lights and it spoke. “You have returned blood-sister. Though who is this that has come with you?”</p><p>“This is Ozpin, he’s a teacher at this school. He asked to come with me for my safety.” Ruby gestured to Ozpin. She felt the need to answer this entity honestly. “What are you?”</p><p>“We are Lilith. No, I am Lilith. Your language is new to me, and I find that I am still adjusting to it. I have been dormant for a great many of your years.” A face began to take shape from the lights. Soft and beautiful, yet also partially covered in what appeared to be scales. More of her body seemed to take clearer shape and the drifting lights approached the shore. They formed limbs, one arm had claws rather than fingers, and patches of scales appeared all over her body.</p><p>As these strangely draconian features began to take shape, so did another thing. Ruby and Ozpin simultaneously averted their eyes as they realized that Lilith was naked. Finally, the lights reached the shore and faded back to ambiance as Ruby heard Lilith step forward with a fully realized body.</p><p>“Why are you both looking away from me?”</p><p>“It is customary to wear clothing in our society, unless you are in a very specific kind of relationship with all those present.” Ozpin tactfully provided Lilith with an answer.</p><p>“Very well, is this adequate?” </p><p>Ruby looked back up to see that Lilith had somehow made sweatpants and a t-shirt appear out of nowhere, partially covering up her body. There was still a visible bulge in her sweatpants that made Ruby blush, but she concentrated on her face instead. “So what exactly is going on?”</p><p>“I am the designated representative of the Omnicron, which contains within it a record of and the means to restore the ancient magical lifeforms that have disappeared from Remnant.” Lilith spoke directly to Ruby, almost ignoring Ozpin entirely. Her eyes were silver, and the patches of scales on her shifted beautifully through the colors of the rainbow.</p><p>“Are you saying that magic exists?” Ruby was completely confused.</p><p>“Yes, very long ago the human kingdoms lived in peace with the natural world around them. All had the ability to use magic, and they prospered. But then a great war broke out between them and the dragons, the guardians of the natural world. The humans won the war, and without dragons the flow of magical energy ceased, causing many species that depended upon it to slowly go extinct. It also caused magic to stagnate and unnaturally separate into its two halves, creation and destruction, the manifestations of which your people call dust and grimm. The last surviving dragon hid themselves away and did their best to preserve what they could, creating this archive, which has lain dormant in wait for one of their bloodline to awaken it.” Lilith gestured to the entire cave around them. </p><p>“So then how did it get awakened if there are no dragons left?” </p><p>“You. You are descended from them. Their descendants can be identified by their silver eyes. It is a very distant relation, but it is enough. With your help the world can eventually be restored to the way it was.” Lilith tapped her own eye to emphasize her point.</p><p>“And if that happened, the grimm would stop spawning, and people would be able to use magic again?” Ruby’s voice raised in excitement.</p><p>“It will most likely take longer than your lifetime, as it is an incredibly demanding task, but yes, eventually that will happen if all goes well.” Lilith smiled kindly, her first display of emotion since appearing.</p><p>“That’s incredible! How can I help do that?”</p><p>“Because of the loss of the dragons it is no longer possible to use magic normally. Instead, the Omnicron was programmed with... unique methods of utilizing magic to create life, and alter reality, so that it could be hidden for as long as necessary. In order to restore the life forms that should be to the world, the most effective method of gathering magical power is through carnal acts. But not just matters of ordinary sex, in order for the magical potential humans aren’t aware that they have to be utilized to power the Omnicron, things will become, based on what I understand of your culture’s standards, unimaginably depraved.” Lilith smiled, showing her teeth this time. They were all pointed fangs. “This is something that would likely dissuade potential assistance, so we are prepared to offer boons in exchange for human assistance.”</p><p>“What sort of boons?” Ruby had a strange feeling that she shouldn’t be asking this, but if this could make her a better huntress she had to at least learn everything there was to learn.</p><p>“You may have noticed that your hearing and sense of smell have improved somewhat since your blood was first taken. These are only the beginnings. We can provide unique means of training, physical enhancements, and mental improvements beyond ordinary human capacity. As well as incredibly useful magical arms and armor.”</p><p>Ruby gulped and unconsciously stepped forward. “Um, Ozpin, what do you think about all of this?” If all of this was true there was no way she could turn it down. She had already determined that she would do whatever it took to become the greatest huntress possible. She’d never give up Crescent Rose in favor of something magical though. Hopefully it would be possible to craft whatever magical stuff she got into a blade for her baby or something.</p><p>“Everything appears to be true, if solely because we have just entered a place with impossible dimensions and seen a person be created from nothing. By my estimation we should have come into contact with the forge at some point, but we have not. I find the nature by which this Omnicron will grow in power to be questionable, but all I can do is advise caution. The potential benefit is simply too great to ignore.” Ozpin looked to Lilith. “If that is all of the information you have to provide us with, I have things that I must prepare posthaste. I believe that Miss Rose would prefer to continue on with matters in privacy.”</p><p>“I’m not aware of anything else you may want to know, so if you have no further questions feel free to leave the way that you came. And be aware that none will be able to enter this area unless they have been here before or are accompanied by Ruby herself, at least until something else is arranged.”</p><p>Ozpin left in a hurry that left Ruby slightly confused about his reasoning. “What did he mean about preferring privacy for whatever's next?”</p><p>“If you wish to begin this, the next step is simple. We will fuck, and the energy created will be enough to be the beginning of the structure that will gradually come to accommodate dozens, even hundreds of additional people who will assist in restoring the natural order, and become stronger defenders of humanity in the process.” Lilith grinned again, and stepped next to Ruby, putting an arm around her shoulder. In their new close proximity she realized that Lilith must be nearly seven feet tall.</p><p>Ruby swallowed nervously. She honestly wasn’t sure what to do, Lilith was incredibly beautiful. She was very nervous about saying so though.</p><p>“What if I offered you the body your ideal body in exchange for having sex with me?” Lilith’s hand rested gently on Ruby’s shoulder, sending a shiver down her body.</p><p>“I-how would you know what my ideal body is?” Ruby’s voice squeaked, but she felt comforted by Lilith’s touch. And aroused.</p><p>“As soon as we first absorbed your blood we came to know everything about you. As the one who awakened the Omnicron, you will always be rewarded very generously. Your draconic heritage makes that which you give incredibly valuable.”</p><p>“Okay. I want to do this.” Ruby smiled, and nodded.</p><p>“Good.” Lilith picked Ruby up and brought her up to eye level for a kiss before laying her gently on a soft bed that had not been there before.</p><p>“Oh!” Ruby set Crescent Rose carefully on the floor and threw aside her cloak as she realized how suddenly horny she was, just from a short kiss. She looked up at Lilith, who had already tossed aside her clothes and was now proudly showing off her erection.</p><p>“Let me get those for you.” Lilith waved her hand above Ruby’s body and her clothes reappeared five feet to her left, leaving her naked. Then Lilith climbed onto Ruby and straddled her belly, gently taking her hands and placing them against her hips.</p><p>Ruby had never expected anything like this to happen, but now that it was it was wonderful. Lilith treated her so gently, gave her sweet kisses and caressed her body gently, telling her how pretty she was even as they ground slowly against each other. </p><p>Once Ruby had gotten her own erection Lilith slid herself downward, leaving a damp trail along Ruby’s stomach as she positioned herself above Ruby’s cock. It was then that Ruby realized Lilith had a pussy as well. </p><p>The soft heat that enveloped Ruby’s cock as she came to this revelation was a pleasant surprise indeed. She barely even touched herself anymore, so she was very sensitive to every little brush of Lilith’s claws or hands along the soft skin of her belly and breasts.</p><p>“That’s a good girl.” Lilith said as she started to ride Ruby. She lifted a hand to Ruby’s cheek and kissed the brunette again as her claw scraped gently along her belly. </p><p>For some reason, being called a good girl sent even more tingles of pleasure throughout Ruby’s body and into her mind. Her head felt warm and fuzzy, and she wanted to focus on being as good as possible. So she clung tightly to Lilith, kissing back and when they weren’t kissing, she adoringly ran her tongue along whatever part of the dragonic girl’s beautiful body she could reach.</p><p>They fell into a fast pace, Lilith moaning and cooing to Ruby as she rode her wildly. Ruby felt like she was burning up, a searing heat lingered around her crotch, tailbone, and on top of her head as she got close to orgasm. </p><p>Then Ruby came into Lilith’s pussy, and she could feel her body changing as more seed than she’d ever released before was milked out of her. She felt a pair of sensitive dog ears grow out from her head, at her tailbone an actual shaggy brown dog tail pushed out of her, and at her crotch she felt a depression form, then pull inwards as she gained a pussy of her own, without losing her dick. All of her new parts sent waves of new pleasure through her as Lilith whispered reassuringly in her ear about how well she was doing. </p><p>Ruby groaned as she came down from the high of transformation, cuddling herself into Lilith affectionately. She hadn’t even been aware that this was the kind of body she wanted, but now that she had it she realized that she loved it. Ruby moaned when Lilith gently scratched behind her ears, showing her how sensitive they were. </p><p>After a while however Lilith got up from the bed Ruby had been placed in. “I am afraid that you must leave now. In order to make significant structural changes there must not be any humans present. For their own safety.”</p><p>“Oh, okay.” Ruby sighed. She was tired after all that, but at least she knew she could just go to her dorm and sleep in tomorrow. “Wait. Can I hide these? I don’t have a way to explain this!” </p><p>“Yes. Just imagine the way that your body felt without them and they will go away until you wish to reveal them again.”</p><p>For a moment Ruby concentrated on how it felt not to have dog ears and a tail, and they shrunk down to nothing with a burst of pleasure that made her gasp. It wasn’t as good as sex, but just transforming in any way was apparently very pleasant. “Thanks!” </p><p>She set off at a fast walk, too tired to run, but eager to get to sleep after her tiring day. Then she realized she hadn’t put her clothes back on and had to turn back and grab them. </p><p>By the time Ruby stumbled into her dorm her teammates were all asleep. At first she considered climbing into her own bunk, but she was just so tired she could barely think. Her eyes wandered to Penny’s sleeping form. Yesterday Penny has said that she wished she was Crescent Rose when Ruby had held the weapon in her arms. Maybe it would be okay to cuddle the adorable sleeping robot. </p><p>Before she even knew what she was doing Ruby had climbed into Penny’s bed and snuggled up to her under the blankets, quickly drifting off to sleep.</p><h6>Penny</h6><p>When Penny woke up the next morning she was pleasantly surprised to find that there was an exhausted looking Ruby right next to her. Her clothes looked messy and she looked tired, and Penny couldn’t bring herself to move, lest she wake the girl up. </p><p>Instead of moving, Penny simply took some time to appreciate Ruby’s presence. Staring at the sleeping girl was oddly fulfilling, Ruby’s hands twitched as she slept, like she was grabbing at something. </p><p>Penny was so engrossed with how cute her team leader was, she didn’t even notice Amber snickering at her from across the room for a while. “What?” Penny kept her voice low to avoid waking the two people in the room she were presumably still asleep. </p><p>“You two are cute together.” Amber shrugged. “To be honest, I’m jealous. Though, I suppose I don’t mind getting Ilia, she's plenty cute in her own way.”</p><p>“I do not know what you mean.”</p><p>“Well, I can’t imagine even you two useless lesbians not dating at this point, however it is that you ended up in the same bed.” </p><p>“Useless lesbians?”</p><p>“Er, well I guess you could be bi, but you get the idea. It’s obvious that you like each other.”</p><p>“I had never considered my sexuality before.” Penny paused to contemplate the label. “I suppose that I am lesbian, thank you Amber. But what makes me useless?”</p><p>“The way that you two were obviously into each other and not doing anything about it.”</p><p>Ruby stirred before Penny could reply, starting to blink as she woke up, making cute little noises as she snuggled closer. Then she seemed to realize what she was doing and suddenly slid back with an eep. ”Oh my gosh Penny I’m so sorry, I was just so tired when I got back last night I didn’t want to climb up and get in my bunk and I ended up cuddling you and I’m sorry I-”</p><p>Penny shushed her team leader from her rambling by placing a finger against her lips. “It’s okay Ruby. I believe that I would like to cuddle with you in the future, deliberately.”</p><p>“Do you mean like... as girlfriends?” Ruby’s bright silver eyes widened.</p><p>“Yes.” Penny smiled. She felt oddly giddy, she’d never done anything like this before.</p><p>“Can I kiss you?”</p><p>“I believe I would like that very much.” As soon as Penny said it Ruby pounced on her, eagerly locking their lips together in a kiss.</p><p>There was no restraint from Ruby, she threw herself into the kiss entirely, pressing her entire body close against Penny’s and deepening almost to the point of adding tongue before separating to breathe. A faint moan slipped from Penny as they did, and that was enough to bring Ruby back in for more kisses that sent shivers down her spine.</p><p>“Ah-hem.” Amber cleared her throat conspicuously. “I am not going to let you two do that all the time when I’m around.”</p><p>“Sorry.” Penny and Ruby apologized in tandem, then broke out into giggles.</p><p>“Ugh, you two are so cute I can’t even scold you properly.” Amber rolled her eyes.</p><p>“If you think we’re cute why don’t you join us?” Ruby winked at Amber.</p><p>“I...” Amber trailed off in thought. “Hmm, that actually appeals to me. I am attracted to both of you. I prefer to take my time in these matters though, I think I’ll wait a little while. Besides, I need breakfast.”</p><p>“Breakfast sounds like a good idea.” Ilia was surprisingly amicable as she popped out of bed that morning, she seemed to feel much better than she had the previous day in the short time that Penny had been around her.</p><p>“Ilia! You look happy!” Ruby jumped out of Penny’s bed and ran up to give Ilia a hug.</p><p>“I guess I am.” Ilia shrugged shyly as she hugged back. “I made my decision on that thing we talked about yesterday. I think it’s the right one.” </p><p>“Good. Whichever choice you made, I’m glad you’re happy with it.” Ruby kept hugging. She was even more touchy with everyone than she had been yesterday. </p><p>“It’s the one that I think you’d be happy with as well.” Ilia put a hand on the back of Ruby’s head and sighed. </p><p>“Glad to see whatever was making you so bitchy since initiation is resolved.” Amber’s words were sarcastic, but she meant it. </p><p>“Yeah, well. There’s also something I wanna tell all of you.” The spots on Ilia’s skin that Penny had thought were freckles turned a light shade of pink. “I’m Faunus. Chameleon.” </p><p>“Guess that explains some things.” Amber put her hand on Ilia’s shoulder. “Thanks for telling us. Would it be inappropriate for me to say that I think your skin changing like that is really cute?” </p><p>“No.” Ilia smiled, and her pink spots became brighter. </p><p>“Good, because it is.” Amber nodded to herself and marched off to breakfast. </p><p>Penny shrugged and grabbed Ruby’s hand before following, and Ilia followed shortly behind them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Gotta admit the brief smut here is a bit halfhearted. I really dislike writing smut from the point of view of someone who's using their dick. Had to turn out that way for plot though, I'll be making sure it doesn't end up like that again</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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